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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. # 



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It UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



THE 



SHEEP BREEDER'S GUIDE; 

BEING A 

TREATISE ON THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT AND BREEDING OF 

DESCRIBING THE VARIETIES BEST ADAPTED TO THE DIF- 
FERENT SOILS AND CLIMATES OF CALIFORNIA, 
OREGON AND WASHINGTON TERRITORY ; 



WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO IMPROVE THE EXISTING BREEDS IX THE MOST 

ECONOMICAL MANNER. SO AS TO OBTAIN A FIXE WOOLED RACE 

ESPECIALLY ADAPTED TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE 

STATES AND TERRITORY OX THE PACIFIC COAST 

BELONGING TO THE UNITED STATES. 

V 

BY THOMAS ROWLANDSON, 
VI 

Author of the following Essays, which obtained Prizes from the Royal 

Agricultural Society of England : 

$100 The Breeds of Sheep best adapted $100 The Culture of Hemp, 

to different localities, 75 On Top-Dressing Soils, 

100 The Breeding and Management of Pigs, 50 Burning Land for Manure, 

•250 Farming of North Wales, 50 The Making and Management of 

250 Farming of Herefordshire, Butter, etc., etc. 

" Wherever the foot of the Sheep touches, the land is turned into gold." 

[Old Spanish Proverb. 



J. Q. A. WARREN, 

AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHER, 

No. 511 Montgomery Street. 
SAN FRANCISCO. 

18G 1. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, A. D. 1861, by 

THOMAS ROWLANDSON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Northern 
District of California. 



AGNEW & DEFFEBACH, PRINTERS, 

No. 511 Sausome Street, corner Merchant. 









PUBLISHER'S NOTICE. 



Owing to the extensive connection, which the publisher possesses, 
with all classes of Agriculturists and Stock Raisers in California, 
Oregon and Washington Territory, he has had the opportunity of 
ascertaining from various sources the more immediate wants which 
exist, in countries so recently occupied, to any extent, as the above 
mentioned. No want appears so great in importance, as some reliable 
work on •• Sheep Husbandry, 77 as adapted to the climate and soils of 
the Pacific Coast. Sheep culture and wool growing will probably 
become, eventually, one of the most important interests in California. 
Many reasons, however, have deterred the publisher from undertaking 
the publication of a work of this character. The heavy cost of pub- 
lishing, on the Pacific Coast, as compared with the Eastern States, was 
one reason — another, and perhaps more important one, was the diffi- 
culty of obtaining an individual who possessed such a practical 
knowledge of the different matters connected with the subject, as 
w T ould not only entitle his remarks to respectful attention, but be of 
permanent value to the persons engaged in the business of sheeep 
farming. 

Mr. Rowlandson, the author of this work, is a gentleman w r ho is 
held in high esteem, in England, for his general Agricultural quali- 
fications, but especially on this subject, the best proof of which is, 
that he had awarded to him the prize of $100, given by the Royal 



4 NOTICE. 

Agricultural Society of England, for the best Essay on " The Breeds 
of Sheep best adapted to different localities. " Mr. R.'s capabilities have 
been further certified by the present Speaker of the English House of 
Commons, (himself an Agricultural author of some eminence.) many 
Noblemen, Agricultural, Veterinary and Chemical Professors, Members 
of Parliament, Eminent Agriculturists and Agricultural writers — a 
copy of which, to such as may feel interested, may be seen by calling on 
the publisher. Under such circumstances, the publisher thought he felt 
justified in printing a limited number of copies of a work on " Sheep 
Husbandry," at a price that would come within the reach of every 
one, believing that by so doing he would meet with a liberal amount 
of patrouage, from those engaged in California Agriculture, as would, 
at all events, secure him from loss. 

Having made these observations, he respectfully submits the Work 
(the first issued in California on the subject) to the liberal criticism 
and patronage of his esteemed friends, the Farmers of California — to 
whom the subscriber takes the opportunity of returning his sincere 
thanks for past favors, and hopes, by careful attention, to merit its 
continuance. 

J. Q. A. WARREN. 

San Francisco, August, 1861. 






AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Mr. Warren, the publisher of this work, mentioned to the author 
that a general desire existed among the Farmers of California, that he 
(Mr. W.) should publish a work on Sheep Farming, suggesting the best 
modes of rearing and the best breeds adapted for the States and Ter- 
ritories of the United States bordering on the Pacific. Mr. W., at the 
same time, requesting me to undertake the authorship* of such a work. 
The terms for doing this having been satisfactory settled, the task 
was undertaken. 

In laying this small volume before the public of the North Pacific, 
the author feels that he may fairly lay claim to a considerable amount 
of indulgence for its incomplete state, many points of management 
being entirely omitted, or much curtailed— as it was felt that to allude 
to them in a mutilated manner would only be productive of error, 
whilst to give a detailed account would, in a majority of cases, be 
considered unnecessarily tedious. Some of the points omitted and 
reduced, required also expensive cuts, in order to render the printed 
matter sufficiently explanatory ; this particularly applies to the chap- 
ters relating to teething and parturition — very important subjects, cer- 
tainly, but respecting which, it is assumed, that each sheep owner 
knows something practically, or has a shepherd or neighbor who can 
be called upon to afford the requisite advice and assistance. Not only 
cuts, but printing and paper are more expensive in California than 
in the Eastern States, so much so, that there was no possibility of pub- 
lishing a large book here on such terms as would obtain a remunera- 
ting sale in the East. In one respect, perhaps, a work abounding in 
the most minute details is more required in California than in any 
place, because in no other country are there so many persons engaged 
in sheep farming who had previously been occupied at the anvil, the 



6 PREFACE. 

bench, other handicraft, or commercial pursuits, who have had no 
knowledge of the business until they embarked their capital therein. 
Many such, from mistaken views and limited knowledge, complain at 
the present time of the great depreciation in the value of their prop- 
erty, owing to the low price of mutton. The wool of Mexican sheep in 
the south is now valueless to the proprietor, the fleece being given to 
the shearer for his labor ; with sheep possessing a more valuable wool, 
the case would have been reversed — the loss turned into gain. 

It appeared, under all circumstances, preferable to dismiss as much 
as possible minute details of practice, and lay before the reader gen- 
eral principles. In doing so, there was this advantage — that a more 
than usual portion of the anticipated readers, from causes already no- 
ticed, are not likely to have their minds prejudiced by long fixed opin- 
ions, which is generally, amongst agriculturists, the great barrier to 
improvement. Practice is undoubtedly better than theory, and the in- 
stances known to me are numerous where practices are, or rather 
appear, occasionally to controvert known general laws, until a further 
step in scientific discovery reconciles the discrepancy. The author, 
neither in his former essays and treaties or on the present occasion, 
has done other than pay a proper respect to well-established rules, 
founded on local or general experience. 

In laying the foundation for the future success of sheep farming in 
California, Oregon and Washington Terrritory, no ancient practices 
exist as guides, whilst with regard to copying rules available in Eng- 
land and Germany, so dissimilar are the climate, vegetation, expense 
of labor, &c, that no parallel can be advantageously drawn. For 
these reasons the author confined himself as much as possible to gen- 
eral rules, founded on the instances detailed throughout the body of 
the work, leaving the reader to judge for himself as to the adaptability 
of any of the described breeds for his own locality. 

With these prefatory remarks, the author respectfully leaves the 
work, as he hopes, to the unbiased criticism of his readers. 

THOMAS ROWLANDSON. 

San Francisco, August, 1861. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Zoological Character op Sheep. — Its Names according to Age 
— The marks by which its age may be known — The Teeth — Nat- 
ural Age. 

Sheep belong to the order Ruminantiae, or those ani- 
raals that chew the cud, to the tribe Caprime, and 
genus Ovis. Of the Ovis there are three varieties — the 
Ovis Amxon, or Argali, the Ovis Musmon 1 , and the 
Ovis Aries, or domestic sheep. It is only the last va- 
riety with which the California sheep farmer feels eco- 
nomically interested. There are many points of re- 
semblance between the goat and sheep, and it would be 
difficult to mark out any distinct external appearance 
found in the one that cannot be more or less discovered 
in the other. Spiral and curved horns are found in va- 
rieties of each genus, wool and hair also. As a general 
rule, however, wool predominates in the sheep and hair 
with the goat ; nor am I aware that goats' wool, such 
as the Thibitian kind, possesses any sensible felting 
qualities ; in fact, it is to the absence of this felting 
quality that the fine Cashmere shawls owe the property 
of maintaining their unrivalled fineness, though in con- 
stant use ; other shawls made from sheeps' wool thick- 
ening — that is felting — by continuous wear. With the 
exception of cases of scientific, but of no practical con- 
sequence, the difference in appearance between sheep 



8 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

and goats is sufficiently obvious to the most casual ob- 
server. 

NAMES GIVEN TO SHEEP ACCORDING TO SEX AND AGE. 

The male is called a ram or tup, unless castrated, 
after which it is usually termed a wether, though in 
many parts of the south of England the word " teg" is 
employed for the same purpose ; and on the borders of 
England and Scotland " dinmont" is also used. The 
general name employed when intending to describe the 
castrated male sheep is the word wether. In the Uni- 
ted States the word " buck" has become very prevalent 
when alluding to male sheep that have not been cas- 
trated, though I believe not extended further as a dis- 
tinctive appellation than as describing lambs as buck 
lambs. It would be well if sheep-masters would agree 
to adopt the most ancient names, such as ram and wether. 
Whilst with the mother both sexes receive the generic 
title lamb, and if a more distinctive one is desired the 
male animals are described as ram lambs or tup lambs. 
Prom weaning until shearing time it is often called a 
hog, a hogctt, a hoggerell, a lamb hog, a tup hog, or a 
teg ; and if castrated, a wether hog. After shearing, 
when the animal probably will be on an average of cases 
sixteen months old, he has received the names of a shear- 
ling, a shear-hog, &c, and a shearling wether, &c, 
when castrated. After the second shearing he is called 
a two-shear ram or tup, or wether ; at the expiration of 
another year he is called a three-shear ram, etc., the 
name always taking its date from the time of shearing 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

It would be of no practical advantage to extend the en- 
umeration into further English provincialisms. 

The female is called a ewe or gimnier-lamb until 
weaned, after which a gimmer hog, or ewe hog, or teg. 
After being shorn she is a shearling ewe or gimmer ; 
afterwards is known as a two-shear, a three-shear, or a 
four or a six-toothed ewe. The last being sometimes 
called a theave. 

THE AGE OF SHEEP — THE TEETH. 

It has already been s.tated that the age of sheep is 
usually reckoned from the time of shearing ; when, how- 
ever, a doubt exists on the subject, recourse is had to an 
examination of the teeth. Sheep have no incisor teeth 
on the front part of the upper jaw, the bars or ridges of 
the palate thicken as they approach the fore part of the 
mouth : there also the dense, fibrous, elastic matter of 
which they are constituted becomes condensed, and 
forms a cushion or bed that covers the front of the upper 
jaw, and occupies the place of the upper incisor or cut- 
ting teeth, and in part discharges their functions ; the 
herbage being (irmly held between the front teeth in 
the lower jaw and this pad, is partly bitten and partly 
torn away. The rolling motion of the head whilst the 
animal is feeding, affords an evidence of this tearing 
action. 

The molar teeth in sheep are the same in number as 
those of the ox, namely, six above and below and on 
each side. Sheep when arrived at full growth, which is 
usually during the fifth year, possess eight incisor teeth 



10 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

in the lower jaw, or what is called full mouthed. Sheep 
are close feeders, and are enabled to shave the grass 
near to the roots. It is the better enabled to do this 
owing to the upper lip being deeply divided, and near 
the centre free from hairs. That part of the tooth 
above the gum is not only, as in other animals, covered 
with enamel 9 to enable it to bear and preserve a sharp- 
ened edge, but the enamel on the upper part rises from 
the bone of the tooth nearly a quarter of an inch, pre- 
senting a convex surface outward and a concave within, 
thus forming a little scoop or gouge. From these cir- 
cumstances the sheep is better adapted for grazing than 
the ox, and can grow fat where an ox would starve. 

The lamb is usually born before any of the temporary 
teeth — incisors or molars — have penetrated the gums. 
Generally, however, the first and several pairs of tem- 
porary incisors, the four teeth most centrally situated, 
are cut by the time the lamb is a week old. By the 
ninth or tenth day the third pair usually comes through, 
but the fourth or last pair is rarely put up until about 
the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth week. 
The temporary molars, or grinders as they are common- 
ly called, three in number on either side of the upper 
and lower jaw, though uncut at birth, are fairly through 
the gums by the time the animal is three weeks old. 

A marked difference exists with regard to the rela- 
tive sizes of the different pairs of incisors.* The cen- 
tral teeth are broader and longer than the second pair, 
which also exceeds the third, as the third does the 

* Front or cutting teeth. 



SHEEP IIUS1UNDRY. I 1 

fourth. In these particulars, as in several others, the 
temporary incisors arc the counterparts of the perma- 
nent, which succeed them. They are, however, very 
much smaller than the permanent. 

The number of Loth the temporary and permanent 
sets of teeth of the sheep is the same as in the ox. The 
temporary incisors are eight, the temporary molars 
twelve, and when dentition is perfected by the changing 
of these teeth and the putting up of twelve more mo- 
lars, the total number in both animals is thirty-two, 
namely, eight incisors or cutting teeth, and twenty-four 
molars or grinders. The temporary molars are like- 
wise similar in form to the permanent, although smaller, 
excepting the third molar of the lawer jaw, which, like 
the corresponding temporary tooth of the ox and pig, is 
composed of three principal parts or lobes blended to- 
gether. About the third week of the lamb's age both 
incisors and molars are so well developed as to enable 
the young animal to crop the grass and live compara- 
tively independent of its dam. 

From one month until about three months no change 
of consequence takes place in either the incisors or the 
molars. At this time, rather before than afterwards, 
the lamb cuts its first permanent molar teeth, the fourth 
in situation. These teeth, as in the calf, are usually 
more forward in the lower than in the upper jaw, and 
possessing but two lobes, are scarcely so long from front 
to back in the lower jaw as the temporary molars which 



12 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

stand before them. With this addition the lamb has by 
this time sixteen molars. 

The next important stage in the process of teething 
in sheep is the cutting of the molars fifth in position. 
This takes place when the animal has reached his ninth 
month, and consequently forms a useful criterion to as- 
sist in determining^ question of age, both before and 
after this date. The molars are now twenty, which 
added to the incisors, gives a total of twenty-eight teeth. 

At nine months the incisors offer but few facilities for 
ascertaining the animal's age. In most cases they will 
have reached their, full development ; and in some few, 
when the sheep have pastured on tough herbage, espe- 
cially if intermixed with sand, will begin to give evi- 
dence of slight wear. Both the fourth and fifth molar 
teeth consist of two main parts or lobes blended to- 
gether. The animal now passes nine months of his life 
without any addition being made to the number of his 
teeth, the sixth molar not coming up until he is eighteen 
months old. 

At a year old, in cases not unfrequent of early teeth- 
ing sheep, they cut the first pair of 'permanent incisors. 
Cotswold sheep, as a rule, have their first permanent 
teeth before either Southdowns, Shropshires, or Hamp- 
shiredowns. Leicesters closely follow the Cotswold in 
early teething- In a majority of cases, however, sheep 
do not cut these teeth until they are about fifteen 
months old. At eighteen months most sheep will cut 
the sixth molar tooth. 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 13 

As with the first pair of " broad teeth," so with the 
second ; many sheep do not put them up until three 
months after others. A year and three-quarters is the 
average time when sheep will cut their second pair of 
incisors. But instances are not wanting of sheep being 
nearly two years old before these teeth are in the mouth. 

From a number of observations of early teething, it 
lias been found that the earliest appearance of six per- 
manent incisors occurred at two years and a quarter. 
The third pair of permanent teeth does not, even in 
sheep of early dentition, succeed in the same time as those 
teeth did the first — there being six months only between 
the cutting of the first and the second pair, but nine 
between the second and third. In sheep of late denti- 
tion, the second pair of permanent incisors is not in the 
mouth till two years ; and in these animals the third 
pair is sometimes not cut until about two years and 
three-quarters. 

Another nine months will sometimes elapse between 
the cutting of the third and the fourth pair. During 
this period, from daily attrition, the four central teeth 
will give increased evidence of wear. They will, in 
many instances, be flat on their surface, or it may be 
that this is worn into hollows. 

The fourth pair of permanent incisors succeed the 
third at an interval of about nine months, which bring 
the sheep of early dentition to three years, and those of 
late dentition to three years and six months. It is not, 
however, to be assumed that all sheep will be "full 



14 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

mouthed " even at three years and a half ; there are ex- 
ceptions, for greater regularity attends the time of cut- 
ting the fourth than any of the preceding pairs. Al- 
lowing for occasional cases where these teeth are not 
in the mouth until four years of age, it will be seen that 
even in those late exceptions just noticed, the dentition 
of sheep is completed a year before the time accorded 
to it by Youatt and other writers who have written on 
the subject. It is with regret that I have been com- 
pelled to abreviate these valuable observations of Pro- 
fessor Simmonds to so large an extent. Condensed as 
it is, however, I believe it is the most copious and cor- 
rect account of ovine dentition which has appeared in 
any work" upon sheep. 

DENTITION OF THE SHEEP. 
Table of early Dentition. 

Years. Months. 

1 0. Central pair of temporary incisors replaced 
by permanent. 

1 6. Second pair replaced by permanent. 

2 3. Third pair 

3 0. Fourth pair " " " 



Years. Months. 



Table of late Dentition. 



1 4. Two permanent incisors. 

2 0. Four 

2 9. Six 

3 6. Eight 

In examining sheep, there will frequently be very 
considerable difference, on comparing the teeth of the 



Figure I. 



Figure 2. 




Lambs full mouth — tem- 
porary incissor teeth. 



Figure 3* 




Second pair of permanent 
fncissors, which appear at the 
*ge of from. IS month? to 2 
years. 




Appearance of the first 
pair of permanent incis- 
sors. which appear at the 
age of from 12 to 1(> 
m oaths. 

Figure 4. 




Third pair of permanent 
incissors-, which appear at 
the age of from 2 year.- 
and 3 months to 2 year? 
and 9 months. 



Figure 5. 



Figure G. 




Fourth pair of permanent 
incissors, (or full mouthed.) 
which appear at the age of 
from 3 years to 3 years and 
6 months. 




Example of displace- 
ment calculated to de- 
ceive, unless carefully 
examined. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 15 

hogs, or the one shear ; this may be accounted for in 
several ways, as difference in the period of lambing, as 
also to the natural stamina and vigor of the animal, 
especially if of a forward breed and highly fed ; owing 
to the latter cause alone a difference of a most marked 
character between the forward or backward appearance 
of the teeth in whole flocks may be observed, accord- 
ingly as they have received good and abundant feed, or 
been stinted to poor food. 

The want of improvement observed sometimes in 
sheep, without any variation having taken place in the 
pasturage, arises from the animal being unable to ob'tain 
her ordinary amount of food in consequence of the 
inflamed state of the jaw, whilst the permanent teeth 
are protruding through the gums. It would be well if 
such are observed, to have ready some carrots, potatoes 
or other roots, sliced and mixed with bran or cut hay, 
in order to enable the animal to hold his own until the 
teething fever has passed. 

The careless examiner may sometimes be deceived 
with regard to the three-year old mouth. The teeth 
may appear perfectly developed, no diminutive ones at 
the sides, and the mouth apparently full, and if the teeth 
are not counted, the observer will probably conclude 
that the sheep is four years old. In such cases a pro- 
cess of displacement and of diminution have taken 
place ; the outside milk teeth are not only shrunk to 
less than a fourth part of their original size, but the 
three-year old teeth may have grown before them, and 



16 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

so perfectly conceal them, unless the mouth is com- 
pletely opened. Figure 6 represents this deceptive 
appearance. 

After the permanent teeth have all appeared and are 
perfectly grown, there exists no criterion as to the age 
of sheep. In most cases the teeth of sheep remain 
sound according to circumstances, for about a couple of 
years after becoming full-mouthed, after which at un- 
certain intervals, whether from the effects of age or 
having to feed on hard, tough pasturage, especially 
when much sand is intermixed with the pasturage, the 
teeth become worn down to the gums ; or in cases 
where there is a deficiency, if carbonate and phosphate 
of lime in the food, they break off owing to natural 
slenderness, or occasionally from the effects of age they 
loosen and fall out. When therefore favorite ewes that 
have been kept for breeding, begin at six or seven 
years old to lose condition, their mouths should be 
carefully examined. If any of the teeth are loose, they 
should be extracted, and a chance given to the animal 
to show how far, by browsing early and late, she may 
be able to make up for her diminished number of - 
incisors. It sometimes happens that ewes with broken 
teeth, some even with all the incisors gone, will keep 
themselves in condition equal to the soundest of the 
flock ; such have, however, to be well taken care of 
during the winter — indeed, requiring an extent of care 
which w r ould only be justified on rare occasions with 
very fine animals from which I expected to obtain an 
exceedingly valuable progeny. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 17 

When sheep get much older than six years, it loses 
not only much of its property to fatten, but the wool 
also declines. This remark more especially applies to 
very high bred sheep. The kinds which nearest ap- 
proach to a natural or wild state, such as the Herd- 
wicks, I have known to produce lambs after they were 
fifteen years of age, and occasionally living to beyond 
twenty. The natural age of sheep is usually estimated 
at ten years ; to which age, if properly kept, they will 
generally breed and thrive well. 



CHAPTER II. 

Climate as an Element in Sheep Culture. — Northern zone, within 
which Sheep flourished best — Cause of abandonment of the growth 
of fine wool in England — Requisites for the growth of fine Wool — 
Periodical scarcity of food — Fine wooled Sheep best adapted to 
warm climates, whether wet or dry; long, open-wooled breeds to wet 
climates — Effects of climate on pasturage, and cultivated food — 
Wider provision requisite and improved management required, if 
improved breeds are to become general in California — Special 
adaptability of race for special localities acquired by time — 
Peculiarity of character the result of irregularity of feeding, when 
Sheep are left in the natural state. 

Of all the subjects connected with sheep grazing, 
whether considered as regards its direct or indirect 
action, no one is of so great importance as climate. 
This matter will be considered under two points of 
view, namely, the immediate action of climate upon the 
animal, chiefly affecting the skin in the .first place, 
and subsequently by sympathy the other organs and 
animal functions. The secondary one is perhaps of the 
greatest economical importance, and relates to the 
supply of food as dependent upon climate. For to a 
certain extent, abundance of food, possessed of a nutri- 
tious character, will compensate in degree for inclem- 
ency of climate ; to derive this advantage, however, it 
in the first place is requisite that the animal becomes 
acclimatized to the changed condition in which it is 
placed, otherwise most serious evils will arise. 

Perhaps no tribe of animals possess so cosmopolitan 
a character as the Capridse, the goat from which 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 19 

the tribe has derived its name, possessing, in this 
respect, a wider range of adaptability to circumstances, 
than sheep. Nevertheless sheep are spread over a 
most extended portion of the earth's surface, being 
found from the equator to the icy circle, and from the 
level of the sea to an elevation only a little below the 
region of perpetual snow. , It is not one of the least 
excellent properties of this truly valuable animal, that 
it possesses a constitutional adaptability for living 
under such a wide range of climatic changes, but also 
the property of maintaining itself on pasturage 
greatly dissimilar. 

Notwithstanding sheep live within the torrid zone, 
and also within the arctic circle, it will be found 
in each case that the general form of the animal 
becomes changed, as compared with those occupying 
the temperate regions of the earth. The most marked 
change displays itself in the wooly covering. In the 
equatorial regions, the fine fleecy wool becomes con- 
verted into hair, like that of goats, without any under- 
growth of wool ; whilst in the colder regions that part 
of the wool is converted into hair, (kemps,) intermixed 
with long, straight hair-like wool, and beneath a thick 
fleece of very fine silk-like curly wool, similar to that 
which is found on the celebrated Cashmere goat. Be- 
tween these two extremes a multitude of differences 
exist, an account of which alone would more than fill a 
volume like the present. 

To sum up a brief synopsis, it may be stated, that 
north of the equator sheep flourish the best between the 



20 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

30th and 55th parallel ; the dry and warm climes 
within these limits being best adapted for the produc- 
tion of the finest kinds of wool ; whilst the moist and 
cooler regions, yielding an abundance of succulent 
herbage, are most genial to the production of long and 
heavy fleeces, with proportionate carcasses. In such 
countries the symmetrical frame of sheep combining the 
greatest weight of wool and mutton, will always be 
naturally produced, and in cases where very great care 
and attention have been paid to the selection and 
breeding, an amount of excellence has been produced 
such as would have been incredible half a century ago. 
The improved Southdowns, Leicesters and Cotswolds, 
of England, are examples of what care and attention 
can attain in sheep husbandry. As a general rule, I 
have found that excellence of mutton is usually produced 
in moist, whilst fineness of fleece is best seen in dry 
climates. The character of the pasturage has, however, 
much to do with the production of each ; the effects of 
this, however, will be considered more fully hereafter, 
and will have to be referred to more than once. In 
England the cultivation of extremely fine wool has been 
almost abandoned, not as many suppose from an entire 
unsuitableness of climate, for in this respect the English 
climate is more favorable for the production of fine 
wool than that of Saxony, from whence are procured 
the extraordinary fine wool known as " Electoral. " 
The true reason of the almost total abandonment of the 
growth ol fine wool in the British Isles, arises from the 
spread during the last half century of the growth of 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 21 

what is usually termed green crops, such as turnips f 
rape, tares, mangold, ruta-baga, etc., etc., which can be 
consumed by long and open-wooled flocks during the 
comparatively mild and open winters of Britain. It 
will be shown hereafter, when treating of the Saxon 
Merino, that such a system is wholly incompatible with 
the growth of fine wool ; whilst on the other hand it is 
specially well adapted for the growth of the greatest 
weight of wool and mutton in the shortest period on 
the smallest surface. For such a system of husbandry, 
the Merino and its Australian and Saxon derivations 
are wholly unfitted, not only by constitutional dispo- 
sition, but also from this circumstance, namely, that 
where fine wooled sheep are allowed to consume succu- 
lent and nutritious food in considerable quantity both 
wool and carcass becomes heavier, but at a sacrifice of 
the fineness and value of the former ; the extra weight 
of fleece not equaling in value the loss sustained by 
diminished price. (As an example of this, see Ap- 
pendix.) 

The climate of England is better adapted to the 
growth of fine wooled sheep than Saxony, and other 
things, as labor, the value of land, etc., being equal, it 
could be raised more economically and most probably of a 
finer texture, than any thing produced in Saxony. Meat 
however in those densely populated isles, yields a higher 
monetary return than fine wooled sheep would do, occu- 
pying the same ground. It cannot, therefore, be a 
matter of surprise that the production of fine wool in 
England has been almost wholly abandoned. In fact 



22 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

England possesses, or at least possessed until very 
recently, an indigenous breed of fine wooled sheep, the 
Ryeland, which has shown itself better adapted than any 
other breed to consume green food with the least dete- 
rioration in the quality of the fleece. This breed, if 
still in existence, is without any doubt the oldest known 
as possessed of what is called by breeders " fixity of 
type" its appearance, habits, etc., being the same as they 
were six centuries ago ; there are also strong reasons 
for believing that they are the ancestors of the Merino. 
Long however as this fixity of type has existed, it has 
not been found sufficient to counterbalance the eifect of 
food, for at the commencement of the present century it 
was found that flocks of Ryelands that were allowed to 
feed on green crops during the winter, had the quality 
of their wool deteriorated as regards fineness, when 
compared with the old style of feeding in cots with 
straw, pease-haulm, hay and other dry food ; the weight 
of wool on those which were green fed, was however 
found to have increased. 

The example here given will bear a general applica- 
tion, and is one that should be ever kept in mind by the 
intending flockmaster, and will not be without its use 
to those already engaged in sheep farming. 

Colonel Randall has stated in his work " Sheep Hus- 
bandry in the South" that warmth of climate renders 
wool coarser. In this opinion I do not fully concur, 
but rather infer that when such is seen in warm coun- 
tries within given limits, that the coarseness will be 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 23 

found rather attributable to grazing on succulent herb- 
age, which is often found in the vales of countries pos- 
sessing warm climates. In order to maintain a fine 
wool it is requisite that the animal should be limited in 
the quantity of food, and that food ought to be of a dry 
character. In order to produce wool of the finest 
staple and in the greatest quantity, with the least 
amount of superintendence, several things are required, 
namely : In the first place, a fine wooled flock to start 
with ; secondly, a warm climate : thirdly, dry, nutritious 
but not over abundant herbage ; and lastly, a dry soil, 
or only possessed of just sufficient moisture as will 
maintain the pasture plants in a healthy growth. I 
have already alluded to the fact that in the torrid zone, 
that sheep when allowed to rove in a state of nature, 
the wool becomes changed into hair. Mr. Youatt gives 
an illustration of the converse of this, namely, that the 
first sheep introduced by the English into Australia, 
were the coarse, hairy sheep of Bengal. In the short 
space of three years these were so far changed by the 
effect of climate and other circumstances, that their hair 
was entirely gone, and was succeeded by a fleece of 
wool ; of what quality, however, has not been stated. 
Although the change from hair to wool is a curiously 
physiological and very instructive fact, the writer 
doubts whether the wool of animals so descended would 
in any reasonable period of time become of fine 
quality ; nor would it be very safe for a California 
sheep-breeder to rely upon his flocks of immediate, or 



24 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

not very remote Mexican descent, with their straight 
harsh wool, almost like hair, becoming changed into 
wool of even moderate fineness, through the ameli- 
orating agency of a California climate. Mr. Youatt 
further adds : " The Southdown and Leicester sheep 
were subsequently introduced, and their crosses with 
the Bengal sheep soon became as fine as the pure bloods 
of the former." At length some Merinos were imported 
by the colonists, and says Mr. Youatt, " the experiment 
was satisfactory beyond their expectation." The third 
or fourth cross with the then prevalent sheep of the 
colony, produced an animal with a fleece equal to that 
of the pure Merino in Europe ; and the wool of the 
pure blood seemed to improve as rapidly as the native 
breed had done. 

Notwithstanding the severe droughts which some- 
times afflict Australia, it may perhaps as a whole be 
said to possess the* finest climate for producing fine 
wool which is to be found in the world. The monop- 
oly of the best runs near the rivers by the squatters, 
gives probably an advantage to the present generation 
of sheep owners, which may have hereafter to be com- 
pensated in some other and probably artificial manner. 

From what has already been stated the reader will 
probably be satisfied to concur with the writer, that for 
a dry climate, which California most certainly pos- 
sesses, the fine wooled sheep is best adapted for general 
husbandry. There are, however, a considerable number 
of acres of low lands, at present unreclaimed, which 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY, 25 

would be better calculated for raising large, long- 
wooled, heavy fleeced sheep ; particulars respecting 
which will be given when describing the different 
breeds thus alluded to, as also that of a hardy, mountain 
race, that would probably acclimate and do well in the 
Sierra Nevada, or in the lower lands around the 
vicinity of the mining districts of Washoe, Mono and 
Esmeralda. 

The greatest impediment in the way of the California 
sheep owner, is the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient 
subsistence ; unless a reserve is made for the purpose 
between July and the first autumnal showers, which 
usually occur about the equinox, and also sometimes 
even in Southern California, after the heavy winter 
falls; if followed as they are occasionally by frost, or if 
very lengthened rains happen, the effect is not much dis- 
similar, namely, tie rendering of the naturally hayed 
grass quite i "nutritious, at which period the sheep 
suffer much unless some provision has been made to 
meet such a contingency. Whether this misfortune 
arises from frost, or a continuous rain, it is followed by 
one almost as annoying, namely, the scouring and con- 
sequently debilitated character of the young grass. It 
is not intended to dwell at any length on these points, 
they are too well known to California farmers ; nor 
have I at present any remedy to offer, excepting that of 
making some provision for such periodical straights ; a 
piece of advice, of which it will probably be said is 
much easier to give than to be acted upon. Although 



26 SHEEP HUSBANDKY. 



in the present state of California husbandry, it is per- 
haps difficult to show how this annoyance can be prac 
tically overcome, this advantage will arise from allud- 
ing to the circumstance as affording an opportunity of 
pointing out to the sheep breeder, that unless he can 
find shelter and food to put over these trying times, 
which occur every year, it will be quite foolish on his 
part to attempt to rear very fine animals. Practically, 
therefore, for some years to come, the California sheep 
owner should attempt only rearing flocks possessing 
wool of a secondary character as regards fineness, 
rather than the very best fleeces. In the course of the 
succeeding pages, the endeavor will be made to show 
how these points can be best accomplished. 

It will perhaps be not out of place to here allude to 
the suitableness or otherwise of long or short wooled 
animals as best adapted to cold, wet, dry and warm 
climates. The short wooled breeds are undoubtedly 
the best calculated for dry and warm climates, or even 
for dry and cold ones, but whenever to the other in- 
clemencies of weather is added that of heavy rains, the 
long, open fleeced varieties are the best, and suffer the 
least from cold. A little reflection will make this suf- 
ficiently obvious. The fine wooled, close fleeced vari- 
eties, whilst capable of keeping out light showers, or 
only permit the moisture to penetrate slightly, become 
saturated and hold the water during heavy rains ; on 
the other hand, the more open fleeced, long wooled va- 
rieties permit the water to flow off, in consequence of 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 27 

which the rain is kept from penetrating to the skin for 
a longer period, than a close wooled fine fleece would 
keep it off. The former having also the further advan- 
tage that the more open locks permit the readier access 
of atmospheric agencies to dry up any adhering moisture 
after the rain has ceased. 

Moisture however derived, whether the effects of 
drainage, irrigation, rains, dews, &c, is essential to 
vegetation ; without it the whole world would become 
an arid desert. The aridity arising from deficiency of 
moisture is well seen in Lower California, the vicinity 
of the Colorado, and the great desert east of the Sierra 
Nevada. Yet all these districts produce a rich vegeta- 
tion wherever water is accessible, no matter in what 
form. Thus the character of the flora of a country de- 
pends more upon climate than soil. # As an instance may 
be adduced the Brassica, or cabbage tribe, which forms 
so important a feature of British husbandry. Turnips, 
cabbage, &c, that will scarcely grow beyond the seed 
leaves on a sandy soil in a very dry climate — such as 
Lower or the southern part of Upper California — un- 
less artificially watered during the dry season, will ma- 
ture in the British Isles to roots and heads weighing 
from twenty to fifty pounds each. Although much 
might be done in California to ameliorate the aridity 
of its southern counties, it will probably be some years 
before any energetic attempts will be made to do so ; 
consequently I shall not enter at any length into the 
question of mixed husbandry, such as is pursued in Eng- 



28 SHEEP HUSBANDEY. 

land, whereby the flocks are more plentuously fed in 
winter than in summer, owing to the admixture of ara- 
ble husbandry along with sheep grazing. It is on the 
natural pasture grasses and clovers that the California 
sheep-master will most probably for some time have to 
depend. Whether or not, at the present time, it would 
be advantageous for sheep owners to save a considerable 
portion of oat hay, which grows spontaneously in many 
districts, and stack it for winter use, rather than allow 
it to have the greater part of its nutritious properties 
washed out by the autumnal and winter rains, leaving 
the poor animals a bite of rotten straw, is a question to 
which I shall merely draw the farmer's attention, simply 
remarking that until this is done, or some other or ad- 
ditional means are adopted to secure, at all events, a 
moderate supply of nutritious food for the periodical 
pinching seasons, it will be absurd to attempt any con- 
siderable improvement in the character of the flocks. 

The improved breeds of sheep, whether they are 
Southdowns, Merinos, Leicesters, Cotswolds, or any 
other variety, derived their superiority from careful at- 
tention to food and shelter, and all such improved blood 
is calculated to introduce a tenderness in place of hard- 
ness of constitution ; unless, therefore, a farmer is re- 
solved to adopt improved management along with the 
introduction of improved breeds, he is more likely to 
meet with disappointment and loss rather than credit 
and gain, by crossing his flock with high blooded ani- 
mals. An exception may probably be made for the 



SHEEP EUSBAJTDBY. 20 

narrow strip of country between the southern seaboard 
and the coast range, in consequence of the heavy fogfl 
there producing something akin to perennial verdancy. 
Even here, however, the continuously heavy rains which 
sometimes occur with tropical intensity, must occasion- 
ally exert a malignant influence not only on the ani- 
mal's growth but in the character of the fleece. 

Whenever stock of any kind are confined to a district 
which from year to year is covered with the same de- 
scription of pasturage, and undergo the same climatic 
changes and abandoned to a state of nature, then it will 
be found that animals so situated obtain, in the course 
of years, an adaptability for their position of a marked 
character, being found to suffer less from any periodical 
privations or hardships than other animals of the same 
class, even of a hardier character, but accustomed to a 
different climate and food. If we look at the old Cali- 
fornia and Mexican sheep we have every indication of 
animals that for generations have been exposed to all 
the vicissitudes of heat and cold, drouth and rain, ac- 
companied by uncertainties of food, sometimes abundant 
and suculent, sometimes meagre and dry, sometimes 
scarce and bad. All animals of the sheep genus, when 
BO exposed, will usually be found to possess the follow- 
lowing distinguishing features : The wool straight and 
open like hair, accompanied by little of the yolk ; fore- 
head wide between the eyes ; chest narrow ; the fore 
entering the chest nearly at the same point; no 
tendency to put on flesh or fat, particularly on the ex- 



30 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



terior parts ; the fat in general accumulating on the in- 
side, or what is usually known as offal fat. The last- 
named fact, although inimical to the farmer's interest, is 
a wise provision of nature, for it is by the consumption 
of this accumulated fat that animals exposed to want 
and cold are enabled to maintain the temperature re- 
quisite to support life, when from any cause bereft of 
adequate food and shelter. 






CHAPTER III. 

The Breeds of Sheep Best Adapted to Different Localities. — 
Adaptability of Sheep for meeting the urgencies of food and cli- 
mate—The Merino — Origin of the term— Exportation of Sheep from 
England to Spain, for the purpose of improving the breed of the 
latter country — Two varieties of Spanish Merinos — Saxon Merino 
liable to rot — The Southdown — The Purik — The New Leicester — 
The Lincoln — The Cotswold — The Chevoit — Extraordinary weight 
of Lincolns. 

It is a pretty well ascertained physiological fact, that 
the animal system generally has a wonderful capacity 
of adapting itself to the urgencies of food and climate. 
The deficiences or abundance of the former, the mild- 
ness or rigidity of the latter being met by a conserva- 
tive vital influence which, more or less, rapidly changes 
in a greater or less degree some portion or portions of 
the animal's vital economy, the better to enable it to 
meet its changed position as regards food and climate. 
Thus if a close, short-wooled sheep is taken from a dry 
and mild climate to a moist and cold one, hairs (called 
"kemps") will soon make their appearance in the fleece, 
opening the locks, thus adapting it the better to allow 
any moisture to drain off the fleece. In fact, according 
to the intensity of climate, whether as regards heat or 
cold, and in either more particularly when accompanied 
by great atmospheric moisture, will the fine felting 
quality of a short wooled fleece be converted, eventu- 
ally, into a more open, long, combing wool, at each ex- 



32 SHEEP HUSBANDEY. 

treme of the scale, namely : under the intense heat of 
the torrid zone, or in Alpine or Arctic cold, the wool 
becomes converted into hair like that of goats. 

Between these extremes all kinds of wool may be 
procured, from the finest Saxon Electoral, to hair 
scarcely capable of making horse-rugs. A sheep yield- 
ing wool of the finest quality for felting, if taken from 
a climate and pasture adapted to the growth and main- 
tenance of these qualities, and removed to one where the 
pasturage is more succulent, nutritious, and in greater 
abundance, a deterioration of quality accompanied by a 
more abundant yield of fleece will speedily be observed ; 
if, on the other hand, it is removed to a more stinted 
pasture, the wool will be found finer, but the fleece of 
less weight. In the former it will also be observed 
that the body of the animal will increase in size, and in 
the latter diminish. Although general rules may be 
laid down for the breeds best adapted for special situa- 
tions, the exact point where the greatest amount of 
profit can be obtained from a given space of land, ex- 
penditure of labor and capital, must always depend 
greatly upon the judgment of the farmer, for not only 
do climates and pastures vary, but the important point 
of markets are also inconstant ; thus when the sheep's 
carcase is of considerable value as mutton, the returns 
from their fleece may only form a secondary considera- 
tion. The future prospects of Californian sheep hus- 
bandry indicate, that to the wool must the flockmaster 
look for returns to meet expenses and allow a profit on 
his expenditure. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 33 

Holding this view, combined with the fact that the 
larger part of the pasture lands best fitted for sheep 
husbandry in California are singularly well adapted for 
the rearing of those short wooled varieties of sheep 
which produce the highest priced wool, I shall com- 
mence my description of the characters of the various 
breeds, with 

THE MERINO. 

This title as applied to a particular breed of sheep 
and species of wool, is of obscure origin. Mr. Southey, 
states that Merino is an old Leonese title, still preserved 
in Portugal, though long since obsolete in Spain. The 
old laws of Spain define it thus : " He is a man who has 
authority to administer justice within a certain district. 77 
The first mention of this office is to be found during the 
reign of Bermudo II. The Merinos then commanded 
the troops of their respective provinces in war, but be- 
fore the time of Henrique II. it had become wholly a 
civil office, and the title was gradually giving place to 
that of Alguizil. Some have supposed the term has 
been derived from the Arabic title Mir, or Emir. 
Mirquibir, the augmented title, is said to have been in 
use at Ormuz. As Persia has been famed, time im- 
memorial, for a breed of sheep possessing remarkably 
fine wool, it is possible the Moors may have introduced 
into that country both the breed and the title, if this 
theory is correct ; if true, however, there are strong 
reasons for believing that the wool had greatly dete- 



34 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

riorated. Startling as it will appear to most persons, 
very good evidence can be adduced, that the improve- 
ment of the Spanish Merino commenced some centuries 
ago, by crossing with an English breed the Ryeland. 

It is the common opinion in England, in the United 
States, and in fact wherever the English language is 
spoken, that to Spain was England's flocks indebted for 
a cross with Merino blood, and so far as the effects pro- 
duced from importation made under the patronage of 
George the Third, at the end of the last century, this is 
true ; but centuries prior to this period, fine-wooled 
sheep had been sent from England into Spain. That 
sheep were sent from England to Spain, at known 
periods, is certain. Mr. Youatt, quoting from the 
Chronicles of Stowe, states as follows : " This year 
(1464) King Edward the IV. gave license to pass over 
certain * Cotteswolde sheep into Spain." He also quotes 
Baker, who says : " King Edward IV. entered into a 
league with John, King of Arragon, to whom he sent a 
score of Costal ewes and four rams ; a small present in 

* The practice of cotting is one still followed in Herefordshire. 
Cots are small houses of usually a couple of stories, with gangways 
to ascend, in which sheep are kept during inclement seasons, and fed 
on straw, etc., the favorite kind being pease straw. I have seen it 
stated, that this practice was introduced by the Flemings, during the 
17th century ; but if by the Flemings, at all, it was probably during 
the 14th century, in the Reign of Edward the Third — at which period 
a considerable immigration into Gloucestershire of Flemish cloth- 
workers took place, who subsequently established the far-famed 
reputation of West of England cloth. Shakspeare in Henry IV., part 
2d, alludes to " Will Squeale, a Cotswold man." 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 35 

show, but great in the event, for it proved of more 
benefit to Spain, and more detrimental to England, than 
could at first have been imagined. 7 ' Sheep were ex- 
ported from England to Spain, according to Mr. 
Southey, at a still earlier period. Mr. S. states that 
" Fernan Gomez de Cibdarial, in one of his letters, men- 
tions a dispute between two Spaniards concerning rank, 
in the presence of Juan II., 1447. It was objected, 
tauntingly, to one of them, that he was descended from a 
judge of the Shepherds, that is from a Merino. The 
reply was, that this office has always been held by 
hidalgos of great honor, and that King Don Alfonso had 
instituted it in the person of Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, 
when the English sheep were first brought over to Spain. 17 
This dispute occurring in 1437, and referring to an 
ancient title of honor, which had been conferred as far 
back as the time of the introduction of English sheep 
into Spain, and a taunt also being given to a descendant 
of a Merino, it is clear that the English sheep referred 
to could not have been the Cotteswoldes exported in 
1464, as mentioned by Stowe. How long was it before 
the Merino fleece became finer than that of the original 
stock ? asks Mr. Southey, and he replies : " Brits, who 
wrote towards the close of the sixteenth century, says 
in praise of the wool grown about Santarem, it is so 
fine that it may vie with that of England" Another 
important fact also mentioned by Mr. Southey, is that 
when Catherine, daughter of John of Gaunt, was es- 
poused to Henrique III., she took sheep with her as her 



36 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

dowery. This exportation would be about the year 
1390. If the English sheep had been of an inferior de- 
scription to those of Spain, it is not likely that the fu- 
ture Queen of Castile would have taken them with her 
for her own dowery. It may be remarked, that if 
the King Alfonso, mentioned above as having instituted 
the order of Judge of the Shepherds, is Alfonso the 
Wise, King of Leon and Castile, who is stated to have 
digested a code of excellent laws, and rendered his name 
famous in history by his patronage of the arts and sci- 
ences, he reigned from 1252 to 1284 — it thus places the 
period of the first introduction of English sheep into 
Spain so long as six centuries ago. The above facts, 
recorded in Spanish history, are not given as a mere 
piece of curious ovine history, for reasons which will be 
shown hereafter, and will be not unfrequently referred 
to as of deep importance to whoever intends to promote 
the improvement of California sheep so far as the fleece 
is concerned. 

The evidence, as a whole, appears tolerably clear to 
the writer that the origin of the race at present known 
as Merinos is to be traced up to the Ryelands and 
Cotteswoldes ; the latter, as exported to Spain, being, 
most probably, a small breed of fine wooled sheep anal- 
agous to the Ryelands of the adjoining county of Here- 
ford. Any one who has seen a true Ryeland and a high 
bred Merino ewe, must at once be struck with the strik- 
ing similarity of frame, fleece and general contour, the 
Eyeland being rather smaller than the Spanish Merino. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 37 

The rams are not so much the counterpart of each other, 
the Spanish ram being much more throaty, and gener- 
ally of a more awkward frame, and not possessing so 
many fattening points. Holding these views, it would, 
perhaps, be as well to consider the Ryelands and Me- 
rinos under one head ; as, however, there are some 
characteristics in the economy of these animals that 
vary their identity, and never having been fully recog- 
nized, I, in deference to public opinion, shall treat of 
them separately. 

It is not generally known that the common name Me- 
rino is given to two distinct breeds of dissimilar appear-' 
ance, which, from all the information that has reached 
me, have defied every attempt at engrafting the superior 
merits of one on the other, or supplying the mutual de- 
ficiencies of either species by means of crossing. These 
breeds, if I recollect aright, have received the names of 
the "Escurial" and the "Infantado" or "Negreti." 
The former affords the finest wool, and from its general 
appearance rather indicates an eastern origin, such as 
may possibly be derived by descent from the breed 
which produced the celebrated fine wools of Persia. If 
of English descent, their ancestors were probably the 
Morfe Common sheep, celebrated in ancient times as 
producing the finest wool in England, a cross between 
which, the Forest of Clun sheep and the Southdown has 
formed the foundation of the new race of Shropshire 
" Downs," which has existed during the last few years, 
and still attracts the attention of the foremost English 



38 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

sheep-breeders — an interest which is not at all likely to 
abate. The Escurial possesses a long, spare neck and 
head, with very little wool on the latter ; has a finer, 
shorter and softer kind of fleece than the Infantado 
breed, but yields an inferior weight of wool as com- 
pared with the latter species. The Escurial is the kind 
which was presented by the King of Spain to the Elec- 
tor of Saxony in 1765, where they obtained the appel- 
lative of Electorals. Of these, Captain Stanley Carr 
observes : "lam aware that these sheep have frequent- 
ly been brought to Britain from Spain, but there never 
was labor more lost, as they cannot thrive in a damp 
climate ; besides it is quite necessary that they should 
have a wide range of dry and hilly pasture, of short and 
not over-nutritious herbage. If allowed to feed on 
swampy or marshy ground, even once or twice in au- 
tumn, they are sure to die of liver complaint in the fol- 
lowing spring. If they are permitted to eat wet grass, 
or exposed frequently to rain, they disappear by hund- 
reds with consumption. In these countries (Central 
Germany) it is found that the higher bred the sheep is, 
especially the Escurial, the more tender. They are al- 
ways housed at night, even in summer, except in the very 
finest weather, when they are sometimes folded in the 
distant fallows, but never taken to pasture till the dew 
is off the grass. In winter they are kept within doors 
altogether, and are fed with a small quantity of sound 
hay, and every variety of straw which has not suffered 
from wet, which is varied at each feed ; they pick it 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 39 

over carefully, eating the finer parts, together with any 
corn that may have been left by the threshers. Abun- 
dance of good water to drink, and rock salt in their 
cribs, are indispensible."* Captain Carr further ob- 
serves that " the Merino is a long-legged, narrow-bodied, 
ugly animal, with a fleece varying in weight in propor- 
tion to its corseness, (although fine wool is specifically 
heavier than coarse) from two to three pounds. The 
staple is very close and thick growing, greasy or oily to 
the feel, elastic and soft, very tenacious, and formed 
differently from any other wools, with a number of reg- 
ular minute bends or curls in each hair." There are also 
different sorts of wool upon the same sheep, and that 
animal is of course the most esteemed which produces 
the highest qualities in the greatest proportion. Breed- 
ing successfully with this view is a most difficult sci- 
ence, requiring years of pains-taking intelligence to at- 
tain. I was present at an exhibition of twenty-two 
rams at the cattle show of Gustron, in Mecklenberg, in 
May, 1837. The specimens, to an inexperienced eye, 
appeared much alike ; they were carefully washed and 
shorn, the fleeces numbered and sent to the most emi- 
nent wool-staplers at Leipzic, when they were submitted 

* Captain Stanley Carr, by whom the above account was written, is 
to my personal knowledge a very observant gentleman, who to an ac- 
quaintance with English farming, adds the advantage of having had 
much experience in sheep farming, both in Australia and Germany. 
Any remarks from him, therefore, possess a more than ordinary value. 
Some of the matters alluded to by Captain Carr will have to be referred 
to hereafter. 



40 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 






to accurate assortment and valuation. The heaviest 
fleece weighed 162| half ounces, and was valued at 2 dol- 
lars 1 groschen If pence, being the lowest value placed 
on any fleece, excepting one which weighed 98| half 
ounces, and valued at only 1 dollar 19 groschen 5| 
pence ; whilst the lightest fleece of the lot, weighing only 
67| half ounces, obtained the highest money valuation, 
namely, 3 dollars 5 groschen 7 pence. (For details, 
see Appendix.) 

The Infantado or Negretti Merino is distinguished 
from the Escurial variety by shorter legs and stouter 
make ; the head and neck usually short and broad, the 
nose short and turned up, and the body round like a 
barrel. The wool is often matted upon the neck, back 
and thighs, grows on the head to the eyes, and on the 
legs to the feet. The yolk and grease on the fleece be- 
comes almost pitchy, and when dust and dirt becomes 
mixed with it, the washing is a matter of difficulty. 
The fleece of the Infantado is generally thick, closely 
grown and abundant, ewes yielding 2\ up to 3J pounds 
if carefully fed, (they should not, however, be highly 
fed, otherwise the wool becomes wiry and hard.) Bams 
and wethers reach four and sometimes six pounds. 
This animal was introduced into Austria from Spain, 
and from which has been derived the one known in the 
United States as the improved French Merino, of which 
extravagant statements have been made in California, 
such as fleeces weighing 43 and 38 pounds each. It is 
not at all probable that a single fleece of this species has 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 41 

been raised in California that has weighed so much as 
15 pounds of clean washed wool, the balance being not 
only yolk and grease, but such a quantity of dirt and 
filth as completely prevented a fair examination of the 
staple. This is only alluded to because false and exag. 
gerated statements are only calculated to retard rather 
than promote agricultural improvement. 

Captain Stanley Carr remarks that experience has 
shown that, to breed with advantage, all the rams, be 
the ewes what they may, should be either thorough-bred 
Infantados or Escurials, and that the same strain of 
blood should be persevered in. The Captain alludes 
to an instance where a large and valuable flock has been 
for years retrogading, in consequence of one unsuitable 
ram having been introduced twelve or fourteen years 
previous. He further adds, that good rams are of 
course becoming every year more attainable, but that 
there were still examples of breeders in Saxony who 
obtain for distinguished rams as much as 100, 200 and 
even 300 Louis d'ors.* On many accounts, however, it 
would be more advantageous for the California sheep- 
breeder to obtain any additional blood of the Saxon 
Merino from Australia rather than from Germany. The 
blood may not be so pure nor the wool so fine, but the 
question arises, is the general California farmer pre- 
pared to maintain these very highly bred animals with 

* From 500 to 1500 dollars. This was written by Captain Carr 
eighteen years ago. The price must have become much reduced since 
that time. 



42 SHEEP HUSBANDEY. 






shelter and food during the winter ? whilst, on the other 
hand, the animals obtained from Australia are derived 
from a climate much more nearly assiminilating to that 
of this State ; besides, the Australian sheep for some 
generations have been accustomed to be out all the 
year, whilst the German Merinos have been used to a 
temporary shelter. Both German and Australian sheep, 
if obtained from the best flocks, have had the advantage 
of careful selection, and some attention paid to the 
mutual adaptation of the rams and ewes for breeding 
purposes, so as to obtain the greatest amount of excel- 
lencies in the progeny with the smallest proportion of 
defects. These are points which do not appear to have 
ever been very particularly attended to in Spain. In 
that country not only has the bulk of the male lambs 
been permitted to promiscuously grow up, mix and 
breed with the ewes, but in addition to such a rude 
mode of breeding sheep, that fixity of race which is 
justly looked to as so important a point by modern agri- 
culturists, has been further interfered with by the practice 
which obtained with the greater part of Spanish flocks 
of moving them over great tracts of countries twice a 
year, during which periods they necessarily pastured on 
a great variety of soils, possessing herbage of varied 
quality. 

Spanish sheep are divided into the estante or station- 
ary, and the transhumantes or migratory. The sta- 
tionary sheep are those that remain during the whole 
of the year on a certain farm or district, where sufficient 
provision is provided for them during winter and sum- 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 43 

mer. The transhumantes wander hundreds of miles 
twice a year in search of pasturage. These journeys 
can be traced back to the middle of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, when a tribunal was established for their regula- 
tion. It was called the Mesta, and it consisted then, as 
it continues to consist, of the chief proprietors of these 
migratory flocks. It established a right to graze on all 
the open and common land that lay in the way ; it also 
claimed a path ninety yards wide through all the in- 
closed and cultivated country ; and it prohibited all per- 
sons, even foot passengers, from traveling on these roads 
while the sheep were in motion. The number of these 
migratory sheep is estimated at ten millions. The won- 
der is, not that the Spanish Merino is a somewhat im- 
perfect animal, according to modern views, but rather 
that the Merino still retains so many desirable qualities. 
One of the evils caused by such a nomade life is that 
the Spanish Merino is but an indifferent nurse, and it is 
stated that nearly one-half the lambs — or in bad sea- 
sons, and when the pasture fails, full three-fourths — are 
destroyed as soon as they are weaned. The males al- 
ways being sacrificed first, the remainder are usually 
suckled by two ewes. A comparison of the merits and 
demerits of Merinos will hereafter be made, after de- 
scribing some of the other varieties of sheep which are 
more or less deserving of the California sheep farmer's 
attention. 



44 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

THE RYELAND, RADNOR FOREST, CLUN FOREST, AND 
MORFE COMMON SHEEP, ETC. 

There exists scarcely a doubt but the three varieties 
first named, have a common origin, and in the author's 
opinion the Infantado breed of Merinos are derived in 
the greater part from one or other, if not all, these 
species. In order that the reader may not be led away 
by what might be suspected by some persons, that the 
author is " riding a hobby horse/ 7 1 shall quote as much 
as possible the authority and opinion of others. Speak- 
ing of the sheep of Radnor, Mr. Davis in his report of 
South Wales, (1814), says : " But the general character 
of the sheep of this county, is to be found in the Forest 
of Radnor, and on the sound wastes of the Eastern 
parts. These seem to have been produced by a cross 
of the mountaineers with the Forest of Clun sheep, in 
the adjoining part of Shropshire. They are fuller 
fleeced than most breeds, being muffled up to their noses, 
their legs nearly covered, and their tails resembling that 
of beavers. The wool has fewer kemps than any moun- 
tain breed, and was formerly reckoned the finest in 
Wales. The wool of this tract is still of good quality, 
and in great request for the manufacturing districts of 
cloths and flannels." 

In 1850 I found sheep answering the above descrip- 
tion, not only in Radnor, but plentifully distributed 
amongst the hills of medium altitude and dry pastures 
in the neighboring counties of Monmouth and Brecon ; 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 45 

in fact all through that interesting region of Redsand- 
stone, made classic by the geological researches of Sir 
Roderick Murehison in this part of Siluria. Mr. Davis 
proceeds to say : u The features of this breed are some- 
what uncouth, but few sheep turn out more profitable ; 
they are not so restless and mischievous as hill sheep in 
general, and collect inside fat perhaps beyond any other 
breed — ten and twelve pounds of rough fat are not un- 
common : and we were informed, that a chandler at 
Knighton, once bought the rough fat of a hill weather 
weighing twenty -two. pounds. M A correspondent of 
Mr. Davis, the Rev. W. J. Rees, reported : " The sheep 
of this county are in general small, weighing when fat- 
tened, from nine to fourteen pounds a quarter. A lean 
sheep is remarked to have the finest wool, though 
smaller in quantity. The average is two pounds to a 
fleece — selling in 1812, for 30 shillings ($7 50), a stone 
of fifteen pounds." The Forest of Clun is a division of 
the county of Salop, usually called Shropshire, which 
adjoins Radnor, and approximates to Herefordshire. 
From the time that I first became acquainted with the 
Forest of Clun sheep, I have always held the opinion, 
that they and the Ryeland are only varieties of a special 
stock ; the Ryeland having had devoted to it the 
greatest amount of care, attention and selection, pur- 
sued daring the longest space of time. There is a 
probability that these handsome and hardy little sheep 
will be preserved, and perhaps improved, as of late 
years ; some West End butchers advertise during the 



46 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

winter months, having Clun mutton constantly on sale, 
which they are now able to do owing to the facility of 
railway communication. In this way it may be possi- 
ble yet to secure some of this valuable variety of sheep, 
should the thorough-bred Byelands be now wholly ex- 
tinct, which is quite probable, as they were nearly so 
when I wrote the report in 1852, on the farming of 
Herefordshire, which obtained the prize of $250 from 
the Royal Agricultural Society of England. In that 
report I stated that the system of soiling turnips with 
sheep, combined with the difference in the values of 
British fine wool at the present period, as compared 
with those which ruled at the commencement of the 
present century, has caused a complete change in the 
species of sheep which are now bred by Herefordshire 
flock owners. At the former period, a small breed in- 
digenous to this and the neighboring old redsandstone 
districts, was the usual one ; they were small and hardy, 
with a fine fleece ; the choicest specimens were known 
as Ryelands, and it is only in the vicinity of Ross, that 
the true breed are to be found. They are very like the 
Spanish Merino, especially the ewe ; are small, white 
faced, and hornless ; they lamb in February and March, 
and are sometimes " cotted,"* when pease haulm is 

* Cotting is stated on the authority of Systena Agriculture, folio, 
London, 1668 — to have been introduced by the Flemings into Eng- 
land, about the year 1660. This, I conceive, is a mistake ; it is 
probably cotting might have been introduced from the Cotteswoldes 
into Hereford, by Flemings^ or their descendants ; cotting must surely 
have existed at the Cotteswolds earlier than this period. The deri- 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 47 

generally given to them. The weight of wool only- 
averaged about two pounds per fleece, but in quality 
has always been estimated as equal to Merino. A cross 
between the Southdown, Kyeland and German Merino, 
would probably prove a most valuable animal as likely 
to supply fine wool with sufficient carcase, and possessed 
of rapid feeding qualities ; it is in the latter quality 
that the old Ryeland sheep fails in comparison with the 
New Leicester and improved South downs. 

The Ryelands have been crossed with the early im- 
proved Leicester, from which cross has descended a 
large part of the mongrel animals which are now found 
in the country. The Ryeland is the quickest and best 
feeder of English original and improved breeds, and, 
with the exception of that hardy mountain race, the 
Harclwick, yields the finest flavored mutton of any 
breed. Mr. Knight, the celebrated horticulturist, re- 
marked respecting the Ryeland and its crosses, that 
11 about seven years ago I [Mr. Knight] mixed a few 
Southdown sheep with my Ryeland flock, in order to as- 
certain their comparative merits. The lambs proved much 
more patient of cold than those of the Ryeland breed 
when very young ; but both the lambs and parent sheep 
appeared to fare ill on the fallows and the mountains, 
where the Ryelands kept in good condition ; and the 
experience and opinions of some of my acquaintance 
who have made similar experiments, induced me to 

vation is Cot and Wold, both Saxon words — the former meaning a 
small or mean habitation ; the latter signifies a plain, open country, 
that is free from wood. 



48 SHEEP HUSBANDKY. 

think the Southdown much inferior to the Ryelands or 
fine wooled breed of Herefordshire, which till lately 
has attracted little attention from the public. This an- 
imal appears to me much more patient of hunger, and to 
keep itself in better condition on a less quantity of food, 
than any other which I have had an opportunity of ob- 
serving. To the great scantiness of the pasture on 
which it is usually condemned to feed, is to be attributed 
the fineness of its fleece ; for the quantity of this becomes 
immediately increased by a copious supply of food ; and 
this circumstance should be attended to in every country 
where these sheep are introduced. 77 Mr. Knight con- 
tinues : " Some attention has been paid to its improve- 
ment ; and although the wool is somewhat less fine in 
its quality than it formerly was, it is still the finest on 
the Island, with the exception of the Spanish sort re 
cently imported ; and the animal must be allowed, on 
the whole, to have been considerably benefited. The 
quantity of wool afforded by the improved sort of Rye- 
land, although increased, is far from large, a three-year 
old wether rarely yielding more than three pounds and 
a half: But a large number of sheep will subsist on a 
small portion of ground, and the wool is worth two 
shillings and sixpence the pound, its value according to 
the quantity of food consumed by the animal is probably 
much greater than that afforded by any other breed. 
The Ryelands readily acquire, on a very moderate pas- 
turage, that degree of fatness which renders its flesh 
more acceptable ; but it is wholly incapable of being 
loaded with fat in the manner of Mr. Bakewell 7 s (Dish- 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 49 

ley or New Leicester.) It appears to me to fatten more 
quickly than those I have seen of the Southdown breed.' ' 
Mr. Knight tried a cross between the Ryeland and the 
Merino. The wool was described as excellent and in 
large quantity ; and he did not hesitate to declare that 
the merits of the fleece counterbalanced every defect. 
Mr. Knight was a keen but , cautious and prudent ob- 
server, and any opinion formed by him from actual ex- 
periment is worthy of the highest respect. 

As regards the Morfe Common sheep, the wool from 
which was prized so highly some centuries ago, little 
can be said. Morfe Common is situate near Bridge- 
north, and at the beginning of the present century was 
about five miles in length by from two to three miles 
in breadth, having several smaller commons of a like 
character in the vicinity. The soil, and position as re- 
gards climate, was perhaps one of the most suitable for 
the production of fine wool that could be found in Eng- 
land. It is very doubtful if a single animal of the true 
Morfe Common sheep, which yielded the famed fine 
wool, is now in existence. For its probable character 
we have therefore to refer to the general type of the 
old Shropshire breed, which possessed mottled faces 
and legs. They were about as large as Southdown 
sheep, and possessed a longer neck, but were more un- 
gainly ; in the points, therefore, of fineness of wool, 
elongated neck and awkward-looking frame, it will be 
seen that they in some degree resemble the Escurial 
Merino. It is not unimportant to observe these char- 
acteristics in tracing the probability of the descent 
3 



50 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

of the Merino from an English source. I do not, how- 
ever, conceive that the famed Morfe Common sheep re- 
sembled the horned variety alluded to, but rather that 
they were like the Cannock Chase sheep of the neigh- 
boring county of Stafford ; also, that they were a supe- 
rior species to the last named. During the present cen- 
tury the Cannock Chase sheep have been crossed with 
both Kyelands and Spanish Merinos, in both cases with 
great advantage as regards the quality of the wool. 
Indeed, it is quite probable that the sheep which formed 
the dower which John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, 
gave to his daughter Catherine, when she married the 
heir to the throne of Castile, were obtained from Can- 
nock Chase, as the Duke owned immense possessions in 
the county of Stafford — Cannock Chase being amongst 
the number. The distinguishing characteristics of this 
breed are grey faces, varying from nearly white to 
nearly black, with every intermediate shade, the legs in 
color resembling the faces ; the wool fine, closely and 
compactly covering the carcase ; hornless, and of mod- 
erate size. When fed on sound land and fair pasture 
they thrive quickly, and make excellent mutton ; the 
principal fault is a deficiency in thickness as compared 
with their length, a point in which it resembles the Es- 
curial Merino. 

It was observed by some one, whose name I now 
forget, that, for its hardiness in subsisting, without 
seemingly any serious inconvenience from its ordinary 
food being withheld for lengthened periods, the Rad- 
nor sheep ought to have an altar erected to its honor 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 51 

in the Temple of Famine. This quality the Rye- 
lands and others above mentioned also possess in an 
eminent degree. 

THE SOUTHDOWN. 

The Southdown may be described as the enlarged 
and improved type of the indiginous short-wooled 
breed of English sheep, of more diminutive size, but of 
hardier constitution. The same animal is to be found 
in Wales as a Radnor and Brecon, in Ireland as Wick- 
low and Kerry — in the latter places, however, the fine 
short wool is mixed with a quantity of kemps, or hairs ; 
even on the Surrey hills, where the extensive waste of 
green sand afford but a scanty bite, the Down sheep are 
but of diminutive size, have a kempy fleece, but the 
mutton is delicious. The Southclowns, from which the 
improved breed of Down sheep has received their dis- 
tinctive appellation, are a long range of chalky hills in 
the south of England, principally situated in the coun- 
ties of Sussex and Hampshire. They occupy a country 
upwards of sixty miles in length by about six in breadth. 
They consist of low rolling hills of chalk, abruptly cut off 
by the English Channel, where they form the well-known 
white Cliffs of Albion. Some portions of the interior 
rise to the height, probably, of seven hundred feet ; they 
are bleak and exposed ; the grass is usually short ; the 
the clime, for the British Isles, may be termed dry ; the 
fissured character of the chalk rock rapidly absorbs any 
rain that may fall, so that, generally speaking, the pas- 
turage on these downs is usually tolerably dry. 



52 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

Until the introduction of the modern green crop sys- 
tem, the wool of the Southdowns was considered suffi- 
ciently fine to manufacture second-class cloths ; with, 
however, the introduction of what has been termed the 
" soiling" or green food system of feeding, the fleeces 
became coarser. This took place almost simultaneously 
with the improvement of Southdown sheep by the late 
Mr. John Ellman of Glynde, near Lewes, Sussex, who 
describes them prior, to his improvement as follows : 
"This breed was formerly of a small size, and far from 
possessing a good shape, being long and thin in the 
neck, high on the shoulders, low behind, high on the 
loins, down on the rumps, the tail set on very low, per- 
pendicular from the hip bones, sharp on the back — the 
ribs flat, not bowing, narrow in the fore quarters, but 
good in the leg, although having big bones." After- 
wards he described them, when improved in shape and 
constitution, as " smaller in bone, with a greater dispo- 
sition to fatten, and much heavier in carcass when fat. 
They used seldom to fatten until they were four years 
old ; but it would now be a rare sight to see a pen of 
Southdown wethers at market more than two years 
old, and many are killed before they reach that age." 

The Southdowns are polled ; they are amongst the 
healthiest of breeds, and possess a patience under the 
effects of occasional short keep much beyond the other 
improved varieties. 

It has already been indicated that the New Leicester 
was formed by crossing ; the improved Southdown has 
been formed entirely by selection. Mr. Farncombe, in 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 53 

Iiis prize essay on the farming of Sussex, after paving a 
justly deserving tribute to the memory of Mr. Ellman 
of Glynde, states : " The mode adopted, and still con- 
tinued, which produces so much perfection, is in the 
choice of the ewes to the rams, and the constant atten- 
tion to the produce from such selections. This should 
be practiced annually by every flock-master, who might 
thereby much improve his flock. As one ram* only is 
necessary for one hundred ewes, so would the expense 
be small and the trouble little for him to be always cer- 
tain of the sort he is breeding from ; but when fine rams, 
perhaps of different character and blood, are used indis- 
criminately amongst five hundred ewes, such uncertain 
breeding renders it impossible that he can make any 
selection from them to be depended on for stock. This, 
with hard keeping, accounts for the inferior character 
of so many Southdown sheep." It would be useless to 
dwell upon the many exellent qualities and sy metrical 
form of the picked animals belonging to this breed ; 
that excellence, however, which will be most prized by 
the California sheep-breeder will be the great equality 
of the wool and the comparative small amount of the 
inferior sorts produced by it. The wool of sheep that 
graze on the chalk districts is usually found to be 
harsher than that obtained from sheep fed on other soils, 
especially those of a light, loamy description. Trans- 
ported to a soil and climate so congenial in most re- 
spects for the growth of fine wool as the southern coun- 
ties of California, by all analogy and experience the 

* This, in the writers opinion, is too small an allowance. 



54 SHEEP HUSBANDKY. 

Southdown wool would improve both in quantity and 
quality. On both these points considerable changes 
have taken place since the commencement of the present 
century, when, according to Mr. Locock, the fleece of a 
Southdown hill sheep weighed two pounds ; in 1830 it 
had increased to three pounds. The fleece of the low" 
land sheep that in the first period weighed three pounds, 
at the latter weighed three and a half and sometimes 
four pounds. This increase is attributable to the joint 
influences of breeding from selected and improved ani- 
mals, and a changed mode of winter feeding by the ex- 
tended cultivation of what is usually known by the name 
of green crops. The length of staple in the hill sheep 
rarely exceeded two inches, and was oftener not more 
than one and a half inches ; it now approaches three 
inches, and in some lowland flocks exceeds four inches 
in length. 

One species of Southdown wool has advanced in com- 
parative value beyond others, namely, the hogget wool, 
or the wool left on the sheep untouched until the second 
shearing. This enters largely into the manufacture of 
mixed stuffs, composed of silk and wool principally ; it 
also makes pretty fair shawls. 

THE DOKSETS. 

The Dorset Horns, as they are locally called, possess 
some qualities which it would, perhaps, be improper in 
a work of this character to entirely overlook. In the 
true breed, both the male and female possess horns. 
The true breed is now scarce, being confined to one 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 55 

district of the county, and the adjoining Isle of Port- 
land, which is famed for its mutton. The frame of the 
true Dorset very much resembles the old Spanish Me- 
rinos, but with a inuch coarser fleece. The pure breed 
is now only maintained in England, for the purpose of 
obtaining early lambs — Christmas house-lamb. They, 
however, have another quality, which might probably 
prove valuable in California, namely, their extraordi- 
nary prolificacy — the ewes generally having two and 
often three lambs ; add to this the fact that thev will 
continue to lamb for fifteen to sixteen years, it will be 
seen that the breed possesses merits of no common 
order for a county where it is desirable to replace a 
coarse stock, such as the Mexican. Although the 
Dorset wool is not so fine as the Down, yet it usually 
obtains a higher price, being better adapted for special 
manufactures. 

Portland, mutton is prized by epicures, and is consid- 
ered at the best, at between five and six years of age. 
Mr. Ruegg in his report on the farming of Dorsetshire, 
states, that " a butcher mentioned to him that he did 
not kill one particularly delicate little ewe, until she 
haa attained her majority of twenty-one years." 

If the ewe is well kept and in good condition, she 
will take the ram in April, lambing in September ; 
the lambs being fed for market by Christmas.* The 
ewes are excellent mothers, and if properly kept, yield 
a large supply of milk, and will take the ram and be- 

* This applies to England ; there can be scarcely a doubt but if 
removed to California, this might be made to take place much earlier. 



56 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

come again impregnated while rearing her last progeny. 
It would be fair to calculate, that under proper treat- 
ment, a Dorset ewe would rear, on an average, three 
lambs a year ; one set of which would be fed for the 
Christmas market, when lamb is expensive. It is proba- 
ble that adobe soils would prove best adapted for the 
Dorset breed. They make an admirable cross with the 
Merino. 

THE PURIK SHEEP OF THIBET. 

The attention of Europeans was first drawn to this 
curious breed of sheep, by Mr. Mooncroft, during his 
adventurous explorations of Thibet, about forty years 
since. Falling a victim to the hardships of the expe- 
dition, no second notice was trnsmitted. An interest 
was again excited in England, owing to the Queen 
having received a few as a present, about ten years 
since. It will be well, however, in the first place, to 
transcribe the information given by Mr. Mooncroft, who 
states : " that the breed of sheep of Ladakh, when at 
full growth t scarcely acquires the size of a Southdown 
lamb of five or six months ; yet in the fineness and 
weight of its fleece, and in the flavor of its mutton, 
added to its peculiarities of feeding and constitution, 
yields not in merit to any race hitherto discovered. 
Perhaps the dog of the British cottager is not so com- 
pletely domicilated as is the Purik sheep of this coun- 
try. In the night it finds shelter either in a walled 
yard or under the roof of its master, and frequently in 
the day picks up its food on a surface of granite rock ; 
where the eye of the cursory inquirer can scarcely dis- 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 57 

cover a speck of vegetation, though a closer investiga- 
tion shows stunted tufts of wormwood, hyssop, bugloss, 
and here and there a few blades of a dwarfed grass. 
But the indefatigable industry of the animal detects 
and appropriates substances so minute and uninviting 
as would be unseen or be neglected by ordiaary sheep, 
or those of larger breed even in this country, (Thibet.) 
Almost all the land round the Capital is under tillage 
for wheat and barley, and in lucerne, but the harvest 
will not have been two months off the ground and not 
a single blade of vegetable substance shall be discov- 
ered ; not a stem of stubble, nor a crown of lucerne. 
The stubble is bitten off by the common cow, the tho, 
(a hybrid between the yak male and the cow,) and the 
shawl goats ; whilst the ass not only devours the stock 
of the lucerne, but by pawing lays bare the tap-root of 
the upper part, of which he generally gets about three 
or four inches. 77 

" The Purik sheep, if permitted, thrusts its head into 
the cooking pot, picks up crumbs, is eager to drink the 
remains of salted and buttered tea or broth, and ex- 
amines the hands of its master for lattro, (barley flour,) 
or for a cleanly picked bone, which it disdains not to 
nibble. A leaf of lettuce, a peeling of turnip, the skin 
of an apricot, are its luxuries. The coarse black tea of 
China forms the basis of the nourishment of the inhab- 
itants of this ill-governed country, and its use is con- 
ducted with the utmost frugality. Rubbed to a powder 
and tied in a cloth, it undergoes frequent boiling, and 
when it has given out the whole of the coloring matter — 



58 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

a process rather tedious — the residue falls to the share 
of the sheep." 

" The Purik sheep gives two lambs within twelve 
months, and is twice shorn within that period. The 
clip may afford three pounds, in the annual aggregate ; 
the first yield is fine enough for tolerably good shawls. 77 

Mr. Howard, her Majesty's bailiff, has stated that 
when fat they would average 32 to 40 pounds each, and 
he thought that two or three could be maintained at 
the same cost as one common sheep ; they had very 
thick coats, into which cold could scareely enter. The 
clip of wool weighed as follows : 

Fleece of ram, 5 pounds ; fleece of three year old 
ewes, 8 pounds ; fleece of three teg ewes, 6| pounds. 

THE NEW LEICESTER. 

In this breed the head should be hornless, eyes prom- 
inent, with a quiet expression ; ears thin, long, and 
directed backward. The neck full and broad at its 
base, gradually tapering towards the head ; breast 
broad and full, shoulders broad and round ; the arm 
fleshy through its whole extent down to the knee ; the 
bones of the leg small, standing wide apart ; no loose- 
ness of skin about them, and comparatively bare of 
wool. The quarters long and full ; the thighs also 
wide and full ; the legs of moderate length. The pelt 
moderately thin, but soft and elastic, covered with a 
good quantity of White wool, not so long as in some 
breeds, but considerably finer than that of long wools 
in general. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 59 

The great recommendations of this breed are its 
handsome form, comprising within the same apparent 
dimensions a greater weight of carcass than that of any 
other breed ; an early maturity, and propensity to 
fatten, especially in the exterior parts, accompanied by 
a proportional diminution of offal, such as is found in 
no other kind of sheep ; thus insuring the greatest 
money return for the quantity of food consumed in the 
shortest period. 

About the middle of the last century, Mr. Bakewell, 
of Dishley, in Leicestershire, first applied himself to the 
improvement of the sheep of that county. Mr. B. al- 
ways maintained his own secret as to the means by which 
he operated ; some have contended that his improve- 
ments were effected by mere selection, others by cross- 
ing ; the writer of this believes that both methods were 
employed, and from details which will hereafter be 
given, he will leave the reader to judge how far his 
opinions may be correct. 

Up to this period very little attention had been paid 
to the breeding of sheep. Two objects appear to have 
alone engrossed the attention of breeders ; first, to 
breed animals of the largest possible size ; and second- 
ly, to obtain the heaviest fleece. Aptitude to fatten, 
and that symmetry of shape which is found to coincide 
with the formation of meat and fat in the greatest 
quantity on the most valuable parts of the animal, 
which experience has found to be accompanied by a 
diminution of offal, were entirely disregarded. 



60 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

Notwithstanding Mr. Bakewell's reserve, he could 
scarcely avoid making public some of the general rules 
which he followed, maintaining, nevertheless, a profound 
silence as to details ; a mystery which he retained to his 
death ; nor is there any probability that prior to that 
event he imparted his secret to any one. We are there- 
fore left to conjecture as to the precise mode which he 
pursued in forming the animal so well known as the New 
Leicester. By however taking advantage of the rules 
which he has and was the first to lay down, as well as 
comparing them with what is now pretty well estab- 
lished, and intertwining the whole with some floating 
traditions, possessing strong features of inherent truth, 
we may probably not go far astray in conjecturing the 
precise mode which he followed. 

Although Mr. Bakewell left the world without giving 
his successors all the advantage of his great experience, 
the world still is, and ever will be, greatly indebted to 
him ; for it was he who first pointed out practically and 
formed sound theories as to the mode which should be 
adopted, in order to increase the development of the 
carcass without addititional expenditure of food. These 
efforts were not confined to sheep ; the same rules were 
applied to neat cattle and swine, which were followed 
by great improvements in both these species of stock. 
From the impetus thus given by Mr. Bakewell, the New 
Dishley pigs, and improved Long-horns, for nearly a 
quarter of a century, illustrated the benefits of his 
example ; until these gave way to the more prominent 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 61 

merits of Short-liorns, Devons Herefords, and various 
breeds of swine. Mr. Bakewell must ever be eeteemed 
one of the quiet but great benefactors of mankind, yet 
it may be doubted if at the time of his passing away 
from this earth, he had more enemies or friends ; his- 
torical justice enjoins the writer to state, with regret, 
that he believes the former were by much the 
more numerous. As with all attempts at the intro- 
duction of improvements calculated to interfere with 
the pre-existing modes and opinions of a not very highly 
educated part of the community, who relied upon high 
traditional practice for justification in pursuing the 
method of their forefathers, it might be anticipated that 
Mr. B., in common with all improvers, would have to 
encounter that inertness of the masses which has ever 
been found so great an obstacle to the immediate intro- 
duction of any improvement or discovery. Added to 
this common ground of obstruction, offence was taken at 
the reservedness of Mr. Bakewell, and what was called 
the monopoly of the Dishley club,* which, combined, 
aroused a great amount of indignation ; balked curiosity 
with some, being placed at a disadvantage in ob- 
taining the new fashioned stock by others, caused Mr. 
Bakewell to have many enemies, and much vitupera- 
tion being poured on his head. 

* A Club, by which picked rams of the Bakewell breed, and belong- 
ing to the members thereof, were only permitted to be used by its 
members ; all other ram lambs being castrated. Fifteen thousand 
dollars was demanded on one occasion, and if I recollect right, was 
obtained, for the use of one ram — to be confined to forty ewes, for one 
season op 1 " 



62 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

Whatever we may have had handed to us from so pro- 
foundly an observant man as Mr. Bakewell, we ought 
to heed most carefully, the more particularly so, as sub- 
sequent experience and practive have proved their 
soundness. Mr. Bakewell observed that animals of 
moderate size increased in weight more rapidly than 
very large ones, and that they consumed much less food ; 
that the same quantity of herbage applied to feeding a 
larger number of small sheep, would produce more meat 
tlian when applied to feeding the smaller number of 
large sheep which alone it would support. He also 
observed that sheep carrying a heavy fleece of wool, 
possessed less propensity to fatten, than those which 
carried one of a moderate weight. 

Acting upon these observations, it is most probable, 
that in the first instance, Mr. Bakewell selected from 
the different flocks in his neighborhood, without regard 
to size the sheep which appeared to him to have the 
greatest propensity to fatten, and whose shape possessed 
the peculiarities which he considered would produce 
the largest proportion of valuable meat with the small- 
est quantity of bone and offal. In the course of his 
trials it is probable that he was still more inclined to 
lean to smaller sheep, from the consideration that per- 
fection of form is the more frequent accompaniment of 
a moderately sized animal than a very large one ; this 
and another important matter, probably led him for the 
improvement of the wool, to cross his pre-existing sheep, 
improved by selection, by a dash of blood that would 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 63 

give a more silky character to the fleece and to the 
body a more symmetrical form ; these desirable quali- 
ties he found in the Ryeland, for the Ryelands possessed 
in the highest degree of any breed then found in 
Britain, the following features, namely : 

1. Fixity of type ; at that time neither so well un- 
derstood nor appreciated as it is at present. There 
can however, be scarcely a doubt, but this and the fol- 
lowing distinctive features have been maintained by the 
Ryelands upwards of six centuries : 

2. Possessed of very fine wool, the finest on the 
Island, with the exception of its congener, the Morfe 
Common sheep. 

3. A handsome, compact, and well-shaped frame. 

4. A kindly disposition to fatten, as compared with 
contemporary breeds. 

5. Hardiness of constitution. 

6. The ewes prolific, and excellent mothers. 

In this one breed, therefore, were found almost all 
the desirable points required by Mr. Bakewell ; one 
obstacle, however, existed, which was the probability 
of the progeny resulting from a cross between the then 
improved Leicester, a large, and the Ryeland, a small 
sheep, might be productive of disappointment, some 
Cotswold blood was intermixed,, and probably some 
Bampton Notts. A man who was in the secret, and 
employed by Mr. Bakewell in bringing rams and ewes, 
by night and by-ways, from Herefordshirh, not obtain- 
ing the reward he expected, gave publicity to the fact 



64 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

of his having been so employed ; thus giving rise to 
an opinion which generally obtained in Herefordshire 
and the border counties, that the improved breed was 
simply a cross between the old, ungainly Leicester, and 
the handsome, compact Ryeland. Although the evi- 
dence is highly probable, that Ryeland blood was 
employed both through ewes and rams, by Mr. B., I do 
not suppose that the means he adopted was in anything 
like so direct a manner. But that he rather used them 
indirectly in a mode which is so susceptible of variation 
that it would be idle to speculate on the subject, as 
there are so many ways by which a slight dash of Rye- 
land blood could be attained, without the aid of a direct 
cross with his subsequently far-famed and high-priced 
animals. Excepting for peculiar cases, I do not con- 
sider the Leicester is a sheep at all caleulated to 
improve old California flocks, as compared with other 
breeds ; though in certain positions of limited extent, 
such as the southern sea-board and islands, they may be 
found profitable as mutton, owing to their capacity of 
putting on flesh rapidly after the first flush of grass has 
put up. On one occasion, I noticed a very young sheep 
of the Leicester breed, in Washington market, San 
Francisco, on the stand of Mr. Barron, butcher, which 
weighed 95 pounds, though it could scarcely have been 
a year old. It was stated to have been brought up by 
by steamer from one of Messrs. Bolton & Barron's 
ra • es, in the South, and had merely been grazed 
in e ordinary manner, without any special care or 
I dance. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 65 

THE L0NG-W00LED BREEDS — THE LINCOLN, THE COTS- 
WOLD, THE NEW OXFORD, &C. 

The old Lincoln and Teeswater breeds generally re- 
sembled each other ; the latter is probably extinct, and 
the former has given place to what is called the new or 
improved Lincoln. Both were large animals, producing 
a heavy carcass and great weight of wool. The most 
extraordinary instance of the latter which I ever heard 
was that of a single fleece weighing a " todd," (a term 
applied to a weight equal to twenty-eight pounds.) The 
breed just alluded to has given place to an animal that 
does not require such a length of time to arrive at ma- 
turity. This was partly effected by a slight admixture 
of New Dishley blood, but in a much greater degree by 
judicious selection. The Lincolnshire long-wools par- 
take largely of the peculiarities of both Cotswolds and 
Leicesters, having the expansion of frame and noble ap- 
pearance of the former, allied, in a great degree, with 
the quality of flesh, compactness of form, beauty of coun- 
tenance, lightness of offal and inclination to fatten of 
the latter ; but they far exceed either in the weight of 
their wool. They are usually kept until twenty-seven 
or thirty-three months old, when their weight runs from 
twenty-eight to seventy-two pounds per quatrer ; and 
the weight of the two clips of wool amounts to from 
twenty to twenty-five pounds per head. A breeder in 
the neighborhood of Grantham exhibited a shearling 
sheep whose carcass weighed 22 stones (308 pounds,) or 



66 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

77 pounds per quarter.* The wool not unfrequently 
obtains a higer price per pound than very fine Austra- 
lian and equal to Saxon wool of second quality. A few 
years ago it was worth half a dollar per pound, and 
should it ever be grown in California as an article of 
export, the shipper may in general look for a net aver- 
age return of from twenty to twenty-five cents per pound. 
Such huge fellows and heavy fleeces can, however, only 
be profitably pastured on rich and moist lands producing 
a rich, luxuriant herbage. If reclaimed, the tu\6 and 
tidal lands are such as perhaps could be most profitably 
employed in pasturing this species of sheep, when com- 
bined with a suitable admixture of horned cattle. 

The Lincolnshire long-wool has a steadier demand 
than any other kind, and has possessed a marked char- 
acter in this respect since the introduction of the Al- 
pacca wool, and is employed in the manufacture of a 
somewhat similar fabric, well known amongst ladies un- 
der the name of lustres. 

What are termed New Oxfords are simply the old 
Oxford sheep crossed with New Leicester and Cots- 
wolds. Although rising in local repute, they do not 
possess any special merit sufficiently deserving to draw 
upon space already too limited to do justice to the im- 
portant subject under hand. There exists one strong 

* Since writing this, I have seen an authentic account, published in 
1855, in which it was stated that a few years ago three Lincolnshire 
sheep were slaughtered, aged respectively three, two and one year, 
and weighing 386 pounds, 364 pounds and 284 pounds. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 67 

ground of objection to employing New Oxfords as a 
medium of improvement, namely, the very recent period 
to which they can date anything like fixity of form. 

The Cotswolds are large sheep ; they are superior to 
the New Leicester in hardiness of constitution, are more 
prolific, will sustain themselves, " by holding their own 77 
or improving, on pastures and in severity of weather 
where the New Leicester would decidedly deteriorate. 
In suckling their lambs the Cotswold ewes are much 
superior to New Leicester. In this quality, and in be- 
ing more prolific, the Cotswold ewes resemble those 
breeds which have been least indebted to the care of 
man. For districts in California where it may be de- 
sirable to possess a large, long-wooled breed, the Cots- 
wolds will be found preferable to Leicesters. Some of 
the prize sheep have attained great weight — sixty-five 
to seventy-five pounds to the quarter, with fleeces of 
of twelve to fifteen pounds each. Perhaps the sheep 
now roaming over our northern and hilly districts could 
not receive a better cross than the Cotswold or the 
Cheviot. The Cheviot, when carefully bred, is a hand- 
some, compact sheep, not quite so leggy as the Cots- 
wold arid Yorkshire sheep ; notwithstanding which they 
are an active race, are famous foragers, and withstand 
the vicissitudes of weather exceedingly well, more so 
than any of the improved breeds. The Cheviots will 
be found most suitable for Washington Territory, Ore- 
gon, the inland counties north of Yuba, and the mari- 
time counties north of Marin. 



CHAPTER IV. 



On Setting a Flock. — Explanation of the terms Setting a Flock and 
Breeding Back — Time as an element in forming fixity of Type — 
Remarks of the late Earl Spencer — Breeder ought to make up his 
mind on the special points he intends aiming at, and not to deviate 
therefrom — Breeding in and in. 

The term " setting a flock " has been applied to the 
operation of improving, either by selection or crossing, 
or both, an already established race. Owing to what 
is commonly called " breeding back/ 7 an improver re- 
peatedly meets with many disappointments. This 
" breeding back " is well known to the breeders of 
all species of animated nature, from dog, canary, poul- 
try fanciers, etc., upwards, though perhaps it is most 
conspicuous in the vegetable kingdom, and is especially 
well seen in the Brassica tribe. The turnip seed- 
growers, in order to secure unmixed seed, are com- 
pelled to make arrangements to have every variety 
grown at a sufficient distance not only from each 
other, but also from the influence of any cabbage, cauli- 
flower, rape, (whether wild or cultivated,) which may 
happen contemporaneously to be in flower, and suffi- 
ciently near to allow the pollen from the one variety to 
be wafted to, and thus impregnate that which was in- 
tended for select seed of one special variety possessing 
distinctive properties and characteristics. Whenever 
such an impregnation of the pistils takes place from 
the pollen of the stamens belonging to another variety 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 69 

of the brassica tribe, the succeeding seed will be found 
productive of an almost endless variety of plants be- 
longing to the same class, but possessed of properties 
wide asunder — from turnips to Kohl Rabi, from kale to 
cauliflowers. It is by the judicious impregnation of the 
flowers of plants that the scientific horticulturist has 
accomplished so many wonderful changes amongst our 
most common as well as esteemed flowers and fruits, as 
examples may be mentioned — the change from the ap- 
ricot to the immense variety of plums, the almond to 
the peach and nectarines ; in fact, so great is the ten- 
dency to " go back n in some plants, that a like kind 
can never be depended upon for propogation by means 
of seeds, such can only be relied on by employing ac- 
tual parts of the plant itself — as cuttings and suckers, 
the vine, the pear, etc., are illustrations of this. This 
recurring back, always more or less, towards the un- 
cultivated original, is not so strong amongst animals as 
plants, and is consequently much more under human 
control ; it is, however, sufficiently difficult to require 
the aid of the minutest observation and discrimination, 
more particularly in seeing that male and female ani- 
mals of the progeny of a cross are properly fitted to 
each other, as indicating that not only their own im- 
mediate, but that all their future descendants will be 
likely to transmit that type which the breeder is seek- 
ing to obtain or perpetuate. Of all the observations 
made, either by others or myself, it appears to me 
that one rule exists paramount to others, that is, the 
element of time in fixing the character of race. The 



70 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

other elements as food, shelter, climate and soil, are of 
secondary consequence, which in time however, pro- 
duce important changes — such changes so caused have, 
according to my observations, ever been more rapid in 
animals whose type has only been recently formed, as 
the New Leicester, when compared with such as the 
improved Southdown, which contains no mixed blood, 
which in a great measure is not an unfair representation 
of the original stock of short wooled sheep changed in 
degree by soil and climate. The Saxon,* the improved 
French, and other breeds of Merinos, are examples of 
the changes which have taken place in the original 
Spanish stock, from the effects of varied food, climate, 
shelter, etc. In the United States a further change 
has occurred, as may be seen by reference to the plates 
of this stock which are embodied in the present work. 

I am indebted to Mr. J. M. Patterson, for pointing 
out me a very distinctive change which has taken 
place in the horns of the French Merino, as compared 
with its common progenitor, the Spanish Merino. It 
will be seen on comparing the cuts, especially that of 
the ram, that the horn curves close to the head back- 
wards and downwards — whilst the Spanish Merino, 
(Infantado breed,) curves outwards. (See illustrations.) 
Mr. Patterson assures me this downward growth of the 
horn of the French Merino, is a special characteristic of 
the purity of French Merino blood. 

Even when setting a flock from a common progenitor, 
two parties having different views may, and do some- 

* An illustration of the rapidity of deterioration in a Saxon flock 
has already been previous given by Capt. Stanley Carr. 



Iiliih, 




iili 

[:.::■ W0'- 






llfr 



\m- 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 71 

times, not only change the character of the two, as 
compared with each other, but both with reference to 
their common ancestors. The most prominent cases of 
this kind, as regards the New Leicesters, was formerly? 
and probably may still be seen, between the flocks of 
Mr. Buckley and Mr. Burgess. Both these flocks have 
been purely bred, from the original stock of Mr. Bake- 
well, for three-quarters of a century. Not a suspicion 
exists that the owner of either has deviated in any one 
instance from the pure blood of Mr. Bakewell's flock, 
yet the difference in the sheep of the two flocks is so 
great that they appear to be different varieties. This 
variation has resulted in consequence of the respective 
owners having pursued, with perseverance, a different 
system ; one of them having aimed at attaining merits 
of one description, and the other having aimed at at- 
taining merits of a different character. 

Not to confine the example to the New Leicesters, 
it may be further mentioned, that of the some half 
dozen most celebrated breeds of improved Southdowns 
amongst which I will merely allude to the flocks of Mr. 
Jonas Webb, of Babraham : John Ellman, of Glynde ; 
the Duke of Richmond ; Sir John Shelly, Bart, M. P. 
for Westminster ; although each symmetrically beau- 
tiful of its kind, yet when compared with each other 
present many features of difference ; and it is known 
from experience, repeatedly tried, that the progeny of 
crosses between these high bred flocks have been pro- 
ductive of disappointment in all cases wherever a 



72 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

marked point of difference exists between the male and 
female, notwithstanding each, standing alone, may ap- 
pear perfection itself. Like in architecture, it would 
be as vain to endeavor to combine the massively simple 
and grand Doric with the graceful Ionic and florid Co- 
rinthian, each must stand on its own beauties ; what is a 
decided merit and proportion in one species, if ingrafted 
in the other, becomes an unsightly defect. 

Not only has time a marked influence in promoting 
the progressive improvement of stock, by stamping a 
greater fixity of type in the descendants of animals of 
high ancestry possessed of excellencies in common ; but 
it has a further influence of a negative character ; 
namely, the prevention or retardation of retrocession 
under changed aspects of climate, soil, or other influen- 
tial cause. Again, to draw a parallel from the vegeta- 
ble kingdom, it may be mentioned that it has long 
been suspected by botanists that all the varieties of 
wheat have been, derived from iEgilops, which M. 
Esprit Fabre has shown, can in seven years, be 
converted into wheat. It is very doubtful whether any 
of the varieties of wheat, either by neglect or mere 
self-seeding, would within so short a period be con- 
verted into an iEgilops. So in the animal kingdom ; 
the descendants of those breeds which have for the 
longest period retained valuable economical properties, 
whether as regards form or function, will retain the 
same for the longest period without decadence in cir- 
cumstances unfavorable to their maintenance, and will 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 73 

be the longest time in giving way to their changed 
position and reduced to what is termed a state of 
nature. 

In a highly interesting paper which appeared in the 
first volume of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, written by the late Earl Spencer,* 
it was well stated by that talented and worthy noble- 
man, that " the bodily and constitutional qualities of 
the offspring are usually similar to those of the parents, 
either combining in various proportions the qualities of 
both parents, or taking entirely after one. I should 
say, as respects cattle and sheep, that in most cases, the 
qualities of the male parent predominate in the off- 
spring. I have also observed that the worse bred the 
female is, the more will this be the case, when she is put 
to a well-bred male f which has been accounted for 
thus : a well-bred animal means one whose ancestors for 
several successive generations have all been good, that 
is, have all possessed the peculiarities in constitution 
and shape ; which it is the object of experienced graziers 
to obtain in their stock. The characteristic, therefore, 
of the family of such an animal, will be such peculi- 
arities ; but the ancestors of a badly-bred animal will 
probably have varied in every possible way, and conse- 
quently there will be no distinguishing characteristic in 
its family. It is therefore most probable, that the off- 
spring produced from a cross between two animals so 

* On the Selection of Male Animals in the Breeding of Cattle and 
Sheep. 

4 



74 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



circumstanced, will be more like the one in whose 
family there is a distinguishing trait, than the one in 
whose family no such characteristic exists. The com- 
mon, but I believe mistaken notion, that the offspring 
from the first cross is better than that from any subse- 
quent one, probably arises from the improvement in the 
first instance being so much more apparent than, for the 
reason given above, it is likely to be in any one gen- 
eration afterwards. 

Before " setting a flock" in any locality, due regard 
should be paid to the soil, situation, and climate on 
which they are to be produced, as those alone should 
govern the decision as to what breed or description of 
animals should be propagated to produce the largest 
return. It is also requisite before any one commences 
the rearing of a breed of sheep, that the party makes 
up his mind what shape and qualities he wishes to 
obtain, and afterwards to steadily pursue this object ; 
if he does so, there is very little doubt but he will suc- 
ceed in obtaining a flock of sheep possessing the char- 
acteristics he intended them to obtain. If on the other 
hand, he breeds at one time with the view of obtaining 
animals possessing one shape, and at another time with 
the view of obtaining animals possessing a different 
shape, the probability is, that his stock will possess 
neither the one or the other in any degree of perfection. 
Having decided on the kind of sheep, care should be 
taken to select the best of that particular breed ; this 
principle should be strictly observed in the selection of 



. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 75 

females, but more particularly in the choice of males. 
Much depends upon the union, or knowledge of match- 
ing the male and female, especially if selected from 
different families, though of the same breed, which have 
been raised in other localities ; and consequently influ- 
enced by climate, soil, situation, and treatment. The 
general opinion amongst English breeders is, that it is 
not advantageous to endeavor to correct any fault in 
the shape of a female, by putting a male to her 
who possesses an extraordinary perfection in the 
merit in which she is deficient, but who in some 
other part of his shape is faulty. This mode of cor- 
recting a fault is frequently successful, but it occa- 
sionally fails ; the forms of the descendants in such 
cases should be carefully looked after, and if none of 
the defective points in the sire display themselves until 
the fourth generation, there need scarcely be further 
apprehension. It may however be observed, that there 
are exceptional cases, when both beauties and defects 
reappear at extraordinary distant intervals. 

Of crossing and breeding in and in, it may be observed 
that generally much dependence cannot be placed on the 
former, and the latter is calculated to reduce the size of 
the bone, and consequently the general form of the 
animal. It is not found prudent, in general, to put 
animals of the same flock together, nearer than the 
third or fourth remove in the same line of blood. 



CHAPTER V. 

Procreatite and Lambing Seasons. — Salt supposed to induce abortion— 
The same effect presumed by the use of turnips — Presumed effect of 
alkaline soils — Period to select and mate animals to breed from — 
Period of putting the ram to the ewe — The lambing season ought 
not to occur in hot weather — Causes of abortion — Lambing — 
False presentations — Sheep and calves cordial — How to make at 
home prepared chalk. 

It would have extended this work too much, had it 
contained any lengthened remarks upon the diseases 
incidental to, and the remedies required for all the 
various disorders of sheep. In fact I have not unfre- 
quently, indeed oftener than the reverse, heard it 
stated, that sheep in California are not afflicted with 
any disease. The latter statement I know to be untrue, 
from having had a personal inspection of scabbed sheep, 
brought to San Francisco for slaughter. My own 
opinion of California sheep farming, extends only to 
observations made during various excursions during the 
last six years, extending from San Francisco to Wat- 
sonville, to San Juan and Monterey, and thence by a 
line extending north-easterly through Stockton to So- 
nora, Tuolumne county ; thence through Calaveras and 
Placer counties, by Yankee Jims, Iowa Hill and Illinois 
Town to Nevada ; thence westerly through San Juan 
North to Marysville ; thence to San Francisco. Only 
two of these journeys were made in the winter, and one 
in the spring season, and those were taken almost direct 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY.- 77 

to the mountains, along the chief stage roads, and at 
seasons usually of no very critical moment in sheep 
husbandry. I have consequently viewed sheep farming 
in California under a rather favorable aspect ; only on 
one occasion was the snow deep, and continued long on 
the ground. I have no doubt, however, that sheep 
farming in California will be found obnoxious to the 
evils incident elsewhere ; though from the character of 
the climate and general dryness of the soil, they may, 
in most cases, be greatly mitigated. 

As I do not, therefore, feel sufficiently acquainted 
with the maladies that may exist amongst sheep in this 
State, it would be idle to dwell thereon and to point 
out remedies for what may not exist, or which present 
such altered conditions as would require an entirely 
different treatment to that praticed in England. I 
am deterred, also, from treating on remedies for the 
maladies of sheep, and that might be allowed, as a 
conclusive reason, from non - acquaintance with the 
disorders just noticed. Another reason, however, of 
not less importance, prevented my doing so, namely, 
the desirability of putting the sheep farmer in posses- 
sion of those remedies which the researches of modern 
science have put at his disposal ; this I could not 
accomplish in the short time required to complete 
this work. On looking over the various books on 
Sheep, published in the United States, 1 have found 
nearly the whole, (the portions on the medical treatment 
of sheep entirely so,) copied from Youatt, whose work 



78 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

appeared thirty-five years ago. Since that period the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England has been estab- 
lished, and in consequence thereof the world has been 
enriched by the able lectures delivered before that body 
by my friend Professor Simmonds. To make a large 
part of which sufficiently instructive to the reader, 
would have required expensive cuts, and the letter-press 
alone, would have exceeded more than is contained in 
the present volume. As, however, the treatment of the 
mother during the critical period of parturition, is so 
obviously one of the most important portions of the 
cares pertaining to sheep breeding, it could not with 
propriety be omitted ; some remarks on the subject will 
also permit additional observations to be made as to 
the best time and mode of selecting the males and 
females most fitted for each other. 

Before entering on the details of the subject which 
head this chapter, I shall make a few remarks respecting 
the use of salt. The use of this condiment has very 
properly been recommended for all domestic animals, 
and to none is it of so much importance as to sheep. 
That it mollifies the rot and some forms of braxy,* is 
proved by experience, and its proper use by the shep- 
herd enables him to exercise a most commanding influ- 
ence on the flock which he superintends. Experience 
has, however, shown that at one season of the year salt 
should be withheld from the ewe, that is, during the 



* This is a name given to a variety of disorders incidental to sheep 
exposed to the bleak heaths of Scotland. 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 79 

season of pregnancy. The late Lord Western was the 
first to observe the tendency to abortion produced on 
ewes when liberally supplied with salt. Subsequent 
observers have remarked effects of a like character. 
This opinion is the more confirmed from facts become 
patent amongst English turnip-growers ; namely, the 
greater number of abortions among ewes fed upon turnips, 
as compared with others belonging to the same flock 
fed on different food. At a conversation held at a 
council meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of 
England, it was suggested by my friend Professor Way,* 
that the abortions consequent on the use of turnips 
arose, probably, from the amount of salt consumed by 
eating these roots : as turnips, beets and carrots contain 
a greater proportion of salt than the grasses, clovers, 
and other ordinary pasture plants. I have made these 
observations in order to draw the attention of sheep 
farmers occupying ranches containing salinas, or what 
are often termed alkali soils, to observe whether abortions 
are more prevalent or not amongst ewes grazing on 
those kinds of lands; and if so, to remove them there- 
from. At those times during the winter when, in con- 
sequence of lengthened rains or frost, the grasses have 
become scarce or innutritious, salt might most probably 
be given to other portions of the flock than ewes. In- 
cidental to this subject, it may be mentioned that in 
parts of England, when it can be effected, it is custom- 

* This talented gentleman was at that period Chemist to the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England. 



80 SHEEP HUSBANDEY. 

ary when sheep are attacked by the rot, to drive them 
on to what are termed salt marshes,* when, if the disease 
is not too far advanced, they are found to recover. 
Should, as I strongly suspect, a large part of the mor- 
tality of sheep in California during unfavorable winters 
arise at the commencement of the season from rot, and 
afterwards from famine, it is possible that the former 
may be preventable in a great measure when resort can 
be had to feeding grounds consisting of saline or alka- 
line soil. The hint is merely thrown out without giving 
an opinion pro or con. It may, however, be well to 
mention that patchy alkali soils are usually formed 
owing to such portions being the lowest parts of the 
pastures, and become alkaline, or rather salty, from the 
fact that the soluble salts are drained into the hollows; 
in consequence of this inferior position they will always 
be the wetest whilst any moisture can be drained from 
the more elevated parts of the land, and may thus, prob- 
ably, be a cause of rot, unless the herbage around is 
sufficiently saturated with salt. Before leaving the sub- 
ject of salt, I may mention that according to all the 
observations made by myself, salt, when given to sheep, 
has the effect of making the wool finer, and possessing 
more of that peculiar softness so much desired by 
manufacturers. 

The proper period for selecting to breed from is the 
clipping or shearing season. When the wool is cut off 
close to the animal's back, all defective points become 

* Marshes reclaimed from the sea. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 81 

much more prominent; the owner can then, consequently, 
judge much better what male and female animals can 
be weeded out as unsuitable ; and also be enabled to 
select and match those which are the most suitable to 
each other. 

In the following remarks the writer presupposes that 
the sheep-breeder has made some arrangements for 
breeding other than allowing the rams and ewes to run 
at large. In the latter case no instructions are requis- 
ite other than those general ones relating to selection, 
which ought to be adopted at shearing time, at which 
period every lamb, be it male or female, ought to be 
culled out that has any evident or glaring defect. In 
case of males, the injurious effects arising from perpe- 
tuating such defect may be obviated by castration; if a 
ewe lamb, it should be sold before it becomes old enough 
to breed from. 

I am quite aware that in the following remarks it 
implies a degree of advancement not commonly found 
amongst California rancheros; if, however, any improve- 
ment is to be attempted and rapidity of success desired 
or anticipated, it will become indispensably requisite for 
the sheep improver to possess some kind of enclosure 
both for ewes and rams. These may consist of earthen, 
stone, or quick fences, pens, or wooden hurdles. "What- 
ever be the means employed, separation until such time 
as the farmer feels it desirable to admit the male to the 
female, and each to its pre-intended mate, is indispen- 
sably requisite, if a high degree of perfection is looked 
forward to in the progeny. 



82 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



The ewe is sufficiently matured for breeding at from 
fifteen to eighteen months. The ewes should be kept in 
a pasture separate from the rams ; in this way the farmer 
can select his own time for putting the males and fe- 
males together. In a general way it will be found most 
desirable that the bulk of the lambs should not be dropt 
until the severity of the winter season is over. In Cal- 
ifornia this may, on the average, be reckoned as taking 
place about the vernal equinox (21st of March,) being 
earlier in the southern and later in the northern dis- 
tricts. In Spain thousands of lambs perish from cold 
and hunger ; so much so that it is usual to estimate one 
lamb to be suckled by two mothers. Every farmer must 
calculate the time best adapted to bring forth his lambs 
by his own experience, for the climates of California 
are so complicated that it is impossible to estimate them 
in the order usually established, namely, by the parallel 
of latitude and elevation above the level of the sea. 
There are climatic zones which possess meridional par- 
allels, the eastern and western extremes of which vary 
in character in the inverse ratio of summer and winter, 
the former being hottest in summer and coldest in win- 
ter, whilst the latter possesses a comparatively warm 
winter and cold summer climate. An instance of this 
variability of climate, as opposed to what would be or- 
dinarily calculated upon, I may mention that whilst 
writing this volume I was introduced to Mr. Davenport, 
who possesses considerable flocks of Saxon sheep in 
Colusi county. In the course of the conversation which 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 83 

followed, I observed that Saxon sheep would no doubt 
succeed in Colusi county, if the Saxon mode of shelter 
was adopted. Mr. Davenport remarked that he should 
this year possess sheds extending more than six hundred 
feet in length, and that snow never laid on the valley 
where his flocks fed. This last remark particularly 
surprised me, because I have myself seen the Sacramento 
Valley, from below Marysville to Sacramento, covered 
with snow for some time during two winters. This dis- 
crepancy I can only reconcile from the circumstance 
that the greater breadth and elevation of the coast 
range intervening between the ocean and Colusi, inter- 
cepts the vapors from the Pacific, being deposited as 
rain or snow on the most elevated peaks of the coast 
range. 

Hot weather may, however, prove detrimental to the 
mother as cold does to the offspring ; therefore the 
lambing should not be put off to too late a period of the 
spring. Hot weather at the lambing season predisposes 
the ewe to dangerous forms of fever, which is promoted 
rather than otherwise by the abundance and luxuriance 
of the pasturage. A late dropt lamb has the disadvan- 
tage of not possessing an equal amount of time to grow 
strong enough to meet the inclemencies incident to the 
winter season, as compared with one that has been 
earlier lambed ; nor has the mother the requisite time 
to recover from the impoverishing effects of suckling, 
and attain the necessary condition to enable it to pass 
through the like trying season. As the period of ges- 



84 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

tation with the ewe runs usually from one hundred and 
fifty to one hundred and fifty-two days, it will be found 
best to put the rams to the ewes from the 7th to the 
31st day of October. When it is desired to put the 
ewes to the ram, no further preparation is necessary than 
that of placing the former on some rather better pastur- 
age than customary. High-bred rams are put with ewes 
whilst shearlings. The number of ewes with which such 
rams should be allowed to run, should be regulated by 
the apparent health and strength of the animal, and the 
pasturage on which he had been previously fed. Forty 
or fifty ewes may be considered a fair allowance to the 
shearling, and seventy-five or eighty to an older ram ; 
indeed, the latter will serve one hundred, if a strong, 
healthy animal, and fed with about half a pint to a pint 
of grain or leguminous* seeds per day, the latter in 
preference. When the rams and ewes run at large, no 
directions need be given, only that there ought in such 
case be at least one ram to every forty ewes. There 
are few places, however, where enclosures may not be 
made to corral fifty to one hundred ewes, amongst which 
the ram could be put, removing one batch of ewes every 
four hours, and replacing them by another batch and 
another ram. In such case, before the ram is put to the 
ewes the under part of his brisket should be colored 
with ruddlet, in order that the flock-master may know 
which ewe he has served, which is shown by the red 

* Peas, beans, &c., when very hard, ought to be crushed. 

fVenitian red, Spanish brown, or any other similar substance will do. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 85 

mark he will in consequence leave on her back ; this 
reddening of the ram's brisket should be renewed daily 
when the tupping is active. Such ewes as exhibit the 
red mark noticed, should be placed on a separate pas- 
turage. Two good results are obtained from doing so ; 
in the first place it prevents a needless strain on the 
ram if the ewes are efficiently served at first ; and sec- 
ondly, by putting a fresh ram amongst them at the end 
of every fortnight, it will be seen whether they are 
again in blossom. A fresh ram should always be em- 
ployed for this purpose, as long observation has shown 
that it a ewe fails to be impregnated the first time by a 
ram, he rarely is effective on the second occasion. 
Ewes, if not impregnated, return in season at the end of a 
fortnight. When ewes do not return in season to bloom 
at the end of a fortnight, it may be concluded that they 
are in lamb ; those which again exhibit symptoms of be- 
ing in season at an interval of a fortnight after being 
served a second time, will most probably prove barren 
ewes, and unless required. for some special purpose, may 
be drafted off, when fattened, for the butcher. 

Little remains to be said about the treatment of ewes 
after the tupping season, as under existing circumstan- 
ces they are not likely, in California, to be hurt by a 
plethora of food. The difficulty in this State at present 
will be the adequate maintenance of the ewe should the 
subsequent winter prove a pinching one. If possible, 
however, the ewe should be maintained in good condi- 
tion, but not fat, for a fat ewe always produces a small 



86 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

lamb ; besides, a fat ewe is less able to sustain the strain 
upon her nervous system at the period of lambing. It 
has already been noticed that the breeds of sheep least 
indebted to man for improvement, have a tendency to 
accumulate fat within, in place of the exterior parts of 
the animal. The consequences of overfattening such 
ewes are therefore to be the more avoided, in order to 
prevent the diminution of size in the progeny arising 
from this circumstance. Notwithstanding the inimical 
effects arising from overfattening, it is very desir- 
able that the ewe should, during the autumn, be main- 
tained in good condition ; and this can always be done 
under anything like fair treatment, owing to the ten- 
dency of all females belonging to the Mammalia to im- 
prove in condition and put on fat during pregnancy. 
The female sheep is consequently endowed by nature 
with a property of preserving itself from perishing dur- 
ing adverse winters beyond that of the male ; — a wise 
dispensation of Providence for the preservation of the 
species, forming another of those beautiful adaptabilities 
to circumstances already noticed, which are so common 
to this animal. 

The rams having been finally parted from the ewes, 
although not "requiring that active attention that they 
do at other seasons, should still be cared for. One gen- 
eral and important rule is that they should be kept as 
quiet as possible. One of the principal evils to be 
dreaded is that of premature labor.* Abortion is not so 
common with the ewe as the cow; there are, however, oc- 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 87 

casional instances of it. The causes are various, and some 
of them of a very opposite nature. Starvation is one 
cause, and probably the least preventable of any in some 
parts of California during adverse winters. A not un- 
common cause arises from intercourse with the ram af- 
ter the ewe is far advanced in pregnancy ; hasty and 
incautious driving, especially as the lambing season ap- 
proaches, is another cause. 

Few symptoms designate the approach of abortion in 
sheep until it is too near to be prevented. A degree of 
dullness and disinclination for food ; a frequent or al- 
most continual bleating, followed by the discharge of a 
glairy yellow or red and foeted discharge from the 
vulva, will sufficiently indicate it. In cases of abortion 
the lamb is almost always dead, or if alive it invariably 
dies soon afterwards. If the foetus has been long dead, 
which is indicated by the putrid smell arising from it, 
the parts should be carefully washed with milk and 
water blood warm, and afterwards with a very diluted 
solution of chloride of zinc, some of which, if very di- 
lute, may be injected into the uterus if made blood hot, 
that is, 98 to 100 degrees of Farenheit's thermometer, 

LAMBING. 

As the period of lambing approaches, the ewes should 
be removed to some fair but not too rich pasture, as 
near to the homestead or headquarters of the ranch as 
can be made convenient. Few ewes sink under the la- 
bor of parturition, unless half starved, and it is seldom 



88 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

that nature fails to supply the mother with sufficient 
nourishment for her young during the first few days, 
and will never fail to do so if the dam is afterwards 
reasonably fed, so as to meet the increasing draw on its 
system in supplying the growing wants of its progeny. 
After the lambs are dropt, the ewes should be carefully 
driven into an inclosure, when the shepherd with a pair 
of shears should remove the hair from beneath the tail 
and inside of the thighs, also around the udder. With 
out this care, termed " clatting," many lambs would be 
prevented from sucking its mother, owing to the filth 
and dirt which accumulates around those parts. After 
the clatting, the lamber will be the better able to dis- 
tinguish the ewes that have lambed. This is a matter 
of some consequence, for it will not unfrequently hap- 
pen that the young ewes will desert their lambs, and 
graze amongst others as careless and indifferent as if 
nothing had happened. Barren ewes will also be more 
readily detected and separated. 

Prior to the time of lambing, the shepherd should 
carefully observe every ewe that may appear to be in 
labor. While she walks about and does not exhibit any 
extraordinary degree of suffering, she should not be in- 
terfered with ; nor should this be attempted if she rise 
when approached and walks away, unless labor has been 
protracted twenty hours or more. The party in care 
should not be in haste to render his assistance, notwith- 
standing the ewe should be contiuually lying down and 
getting up again, displaying more impatience and irri- 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 89 

tability than actual pain ; should, however, her strength 
appear to be declining, immediate aid is required. The 
early interference of the lamber is always prejudicial, 
and not uncommonly fatal. Nature, in the majority of 
cases, will in the course of twenty-one or twenty-four 
hours accomplish that which cannot be hurried on by 
art without extreme danger. 

The state of the weather will sometimes cause a con- 
siderable difference in the duration of labor. When 
the weather is cold and dry, especially if the situation 
is somewhat exposed, the progress of the labor will be 
slow, the throes comparatively weak and ineffectual. 
The ewe may and should at such times be left a consid- 
erable period before mechanical assistance is rendered. 
"When, however, the weather is warm, and especially if 
at the same it is moist, the throes will be violent, and 
the strength of the sufferer will rapidly waste, accom- 
panied with a dangerous tendency to inflammation, the 
aid of the lamber is speedily required. Excepting un- 
der these circumstances, no motive of curiosity, no de- 
sire to know how the affair is going on, should induce 
the lamber to interfere while the throes are natural and 
the strength continues, unless it is evident, without 
handling the ewe, that a false presentation or some me- 
chanical cause prevents the expulsion of the foetus. 
When the^ewe is nearly exhausted, she will often suffer 
the lamber to kneel beside her and successfully afford 
the required assistance. If there is a violent struggle 
between the patient and the lamber, the foetus will 



90 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

often be destroyed ; but his help, when she quietly sub- 
mits to him, will rarely fail to preserve the mother 
and offspring. When assistance is deemed immediately 
requisite, the first thing is to endeavor to ascertain the 
nature of the presentation, and to carefully examine if 
the lamb is coming the right way, with its muzzle first 
and a fore foot on each side of it. If the tongue is not 
protruding from the mouth and becoming almost black, 
and her strength is not wasted, a table spoonful of cor- 
dial with double the quantity of infusion will probably 
increase or recall the pains, and the lamb be soon ex- 
pelled. If this should not be effected in a quarter of an 
hour, a second dose of the infusion should be given ; the 
last not being followed by any good result, mechanical 
assistance must be tried. The lamber should first draw 
one leg and then the other, endeavoring at the same 
time with his finger to solicit or coax the head onward 
at the same time. If he cannot readily get at the legs, 
he should push the head of the lamb a little backward 
and downward, when he will probably be enabled to 
grasp them. If this does not succeed, the cause of ob- 
struction will be the great largeness of the head, which 
cannot readily pass the arch of the pubis ; in this case, 
either by tying the legs of the ewe or an assistant hold- 
ing her down on her right side, the lamber should grasp 
the two forelegs in one hand and with one or two fingers 
of the other, introduced into the vagina by the side of 
the head, urge it forward with as much force as is con- 
sistent with the safety of the lamb. The young one 
scarcely fails to be extracted by these means, unless the 
head very much exceeds the common size. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 91 

False presentations are not numerous with the ewe, 
and are usually accounted for with tolerable readiness. 
The most usual false presentations are : the side of the 
lamb pressing against the mouth of the womb, which 
can easily be detected by feeling the ribs ; or the back, 
when the bones of the spine can scarcely be mistaken ; 
or the breech, when the bones of the haunch will be 
immediately recognized. The hand, previously oiled 
or greased, should in such cases be introduced into the 
vagina, and the foetus being pushed a little back, one of 
the legs will, probably be felt, and may be easily drawn 
into the passage. Being held there with the left hand, 
the corresponding leg must be got at likewise, and 
brought into the passage ; after which the delivery can 
generally be effected without much additional trouble. 
The most dangerous presentations, and the most diffi- 
cult to manage, are the crown of the head and the 
breach. In both cases, the lamb must be pushed back 
into the womb. The head must then be raised with the 
fingers and brought into the passage, if the former 
case ; and if the latter, the lamb must be pushed far 
enough into the womb to enable the attendant to bring 
down the hind leg — a work net easily accomplished, or 
to be accomplished at all, on account of the manner in 
which they are extended under the belly. The princi- 
pal loss in lambing is to be traced to one or other of 
these presentations, chiefly to the latter. 

The lamb having been placed in its natural position, 
and the labor pains being strong, much must be lelt to 



92 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

nature. The strength of the animal being supported, 
and the pains rendered more regular and effective by 
small doses of ginger and the ergot of rye ; the position, 
however, being unnatural, manual assistance cannot be 
too early afforded. The lamber should not use more 
force than is absolutely necessary in order to draw 
away the lamb. Yet, a considerable degree of it may 
be quietly employed without endangering the life of 
either the mother or the offspring. If the ewe is 
nearly exhausted, the application of force is imperiously 
required. 

Difficulty sometimes occurs in the case of twin lambs. 
They may both present at the same time, either natur- 
ally or otherwise. In such case the one that has least 
advanced must be returned, and the other extracted as 
soon as circumstances will permit. The lamb that was 
returned may then be left to nature's effort, and will 
shortly be delivered. 

As soon as it can be ascertained that the lamb is 
dead within the mother, means must be taken for its ex- 
traction. Instances have been known in which the dead 
lamb has been retained in the womb during a consider- 
able period of time, or even during the life of the mo- 
ther, but they are rare. The animal never thrives, and 
in the majority of cases has pined away and died. The 
foetus may in such cases be sometimes extracted by the 
hand ; at others, a blunt-pointed knife, and an instru- 
ment somewhat resembling a large button-hook are 
necessary. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 93 

SHEEP AND CALVES 7 CORDIAL. 

This useful medicine having been alluded to, it may 
be as well to conclude this chapter with a note respect- 
ing its preparation, as it ought always be on hand at 
every ranch where sheep or cattle are kept. It is par- 
ticularly useful when violent purging takes place, as in 
diarrhoea and dysentery. The recipe is as follows : 
Take of prepared chalk one ounce, powdered catechu 
half an ounce, powdered ginger two drachms, powdered 
opium half a drachm ; mix these with half a pint of 
pepperment water. The dose is from one to two table- 
spoonsful morning and night for a lamb, proportionably 
larger for a sheep or calf, according to their respec- 
tive ages. Should the purging prove obstinate, it will 
be advisable, provided a foster mother can be obtained, 
to remove the lamb — the cordial being continued as 
before until relieved. 

Rancheros being usually at a considerable distance 
from drug stores, it may be well to show how he may 
prepare this remedy in a cheap and expeditious manner. 
The catechu, powdered ginger and opium he ought to 
purchase in quantity, and place in well stopped or corked 
bottles, such as pickle bottles, together with a small 
quantity, say half an ounce, of the oil of peppermint : 
five drops of the oil may be dissolved in one wine glass- 
ful of alcohol, which may be- mixed afterwards with the 
powdered ginger and opium. The chalk, prepared as 



94 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

will be immediately shown, and the powdered catechu 
should be well mixed in a wine glass of water ; the 
whole may then be put together and well shaken : 
the shaking being repeated every time the medicine is 
used. As prepared chalk is an expensive material, and 
after all is simply carbonate of lime, the following recipe 
is given for preparing it at home : 

Take a lump of well burned lime and slake it with 
an excess of hot water, stir it well and let the coarser 
parts settle, drain the finer parts and let it settle, drain 
the water from the finer parts, dry the latter, and pound 
it fine; then expose the same on sheets to the action of the 
atmosphere for ten days or a fortnight, stirring it daily, 
when it will be sufficiently carbonated for use. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Growth and Management of Wool. — Changes produced by 
domestication in Sheep — Connexion of the Sheep and Goat — ■ 
Observations of Mr. Robert Smith— English practices not the best 
adapted to California, in its present condition nor immediate 
future — The Yolk — Adjuncts to replace the want of Yolk — 
Salving bratting. 

The most remarkable external change which domesti- 
cation is supposed to have produced on sheep, is the 
conversion, as it is usually called, of hair into wool ; or 
to speak more accurately, the prodigious development 
of one of the constituent portions of the coat, and the 
decrease or disappearance of the other. I have pur- 
posely stated that domestication is supposed to have had 
the effect stated, in deference to other writers who 
positively assert such to be the effect. My own opinion 
is that domestication has little to do with the matter 
other than whilst under the care of man ; sheep are 
more generally cared for, and provided with artificial 
or reserved food, which in severe (generally winter) 
seasons, the animals could not obtain themselves — cer- 
tainly not in the same abundance. It is this additional 
aid to their food, to which is occasionally added more 
or less opportunities of shelter, that sheep in cold cli- 
mates have woolly coats in place of hairy ones ; where- 
ever sheep are exposed to a very low temperature, 
especially if accompanied by much moisture, the larger 
part of its covering will become changed into hair, 



96 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

kemps — whilst the remaining wool will assume a 
harsher and less curly character. The conversion of 
wool into hair on sheep transported from a cold and 
temperate climate to a tropical one, is a change well 
known, but in this case it is not accompanied by the 
fine curly undercoating, observable when the wool is 
changed for hair on sheep transported from a temperate 
to a cold climate. Although it has been noticed that 
sheep taken from a temperate climate to a cold one, 
has a portion of its wool replaced by kemps, or hairs, 
there always exists a fine coating of curly wool under- 
neath, we find, however, that the goat under similar 
circumstances, such as those occupying the cold and 
elevated table lands of Thibet, have a portion of their 
hairy covering converted into wool ; it is this beautiful 
under covering from which are manufactared the 
splendid shawls of Cashmere. Both of these apparent 
inconsistencies are only examples of those beautiful 
adaptabilities which Providence has kindly endowed, in 
a greater or less degree, almost every species of ani- 
mated nature. When a fine fleeced animal is removed 
from a temperate to a cold, moist one — for the two are 
most commonly the accompaniments of each other — it 
is requisite for the animal's preservation that the locks 
should be opened, in order the better to permit the rain 
to fall off, and at the same timebe more accessible to the 
sun and winds, after the showers have passed away. 
This would not, however, be sufficient to preserve the 
animal placed in such situations, for it is not only requi- 
site that it should be preserved from perishing owing 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 97 

to wet, but also from lowness of temperature even in a 
dry atmosphere. 

The temperature of the blood of the mammalia may 
be assumed, as a general rule, to be about 100 degrees 
of Farenhcit. It is well known that mountain sheep 
are not unfrequently compelled to endure a cold 
upwards of 20 degrees below freezing point, or 120 
degrees below blood heat, and if the animal was not 
protected in some mode or other from the extraordinary 
drain of animal heat which would take place under such 
circumstances, it would speedily perish ; to prevent such 
a catastrope, nature has in such cases provided the 
animal with the fine fleecy undercoat already noticed. 
In the same way the goats of Cashmere are enabled to 
endnre the continuous and intense colds of the elevated 
plateaus which they occupy, owing to the fine fleecy 
covering with which they are furnished. When, how- 
ever, a sheep is transported from a temperate region to 
such intensely hot regions as the districts around Car- 
racas or Venezuela, they require no such protecting 
under fleece ; it consequently entirely disappears, or is 
reduced to the merest rudiments, requiring microscopic 
aid to discover them. Th*c hair answers every purpose. 

It will not be here out of place, after the illustration 
given, to again allude to the connexion between the 
sheep and the goat. Although that invaluable animal 
and the goat arc usually regarded by naturalists as 
being not only specifically but generically distinguished, 
the latter, or generical separation, is founded chiefly 
upon characteristics which, most probably, have arisen 



98 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



in consequence of the influence and power exercised 
man. In a state of nature a sheep is not less active 
and energetic than a goat, its dimensions are fully- 
greater, and its muscular strength is at least equal, both 
in force and duration. It is also an alpine animal, fear- 
less of cragg and cliff, and dwelling sometimes by pre- 
ference among the steepest and most inaccessible sum- 
mits of lofty mountains. Among its native fastnesses it 
is said to bound from rock to rock with inconceivable 
swiftness and agility. 

The form and structure of the sheep in its natural and 
unsubdued condition, differ in few material points 
from tfiose of the goat. The skeletons when compared 
together present no points of difference which pass 
beyond the range of merely specific distinctions : their 
digestion and other systems are equally conformable. 
It is known that hybrids or mixed breeds have been 
produced between the goat and the ewe, and between 
the ram and the she-goat ; and it has been asserted that 
these mule animals themselves have not, as usually hap- 
pens, been unproductive ; a fact, if true, that would 
prove a closer relationship to exist between these spe- 
cies than that between the horse and the ass. Besides, 
the hairy covering which gradually takes the place of 
wool as an outer protection of sheep, thus retrogading 
to the goat type, as well as change in form, which 
becomes gradually less symetrical ; the fat which in the 
highest cultivated species of sheep, is found deposited 
on the exterior parts of the body and intermixed with 
the larger muscles, becomes less observable, and is 



by 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 99 

found in the greater part around the kidneys and intes- 
tines as the sheep degenerates to the wild state. Ac- 
companying these outward and internal changes a 
chemical alteration takes place in the character of the 
fat of the degenerating sheep, which gradually acquires 
a larger amount of hirsic acid, and has less oleirie, as 
compared with the fat of improved and early fatten- 
ing varieties, thus approximating to the character of 
goat's fat. 

Mr. Robert Smith, a gentleman known to me not only 
by his writings but also from personal interviews at the 
Council Meetings of the Royal Agricultural Society of 
England, each of which have impressed me with a high 
opinion of his intelligent and observant character, in an 
essay written by him on the Management of Sheep, 
which obtained the prize of one hundred dollars offered 
by the Royal Agricultural Society of England, observes : 

" From close observation I have found the quality 
and quantity of wool to be governed by the quality or 
description of flesh upon the animal : hence certain wool 
and certain mutton go together : further, so often as 
the wool is observed to change upon the back or other- 
wise of the sheep, so does the quality of flesh change, 
commencing at the exact division of the varieties of 
wool — thus showing the importance of selecting those 
animals that possess the best description of wool and 
mutton. All these carry but one sort of wool upon 
their frames, and that of a mellow, moderately long, 
thick, bunchy character, under which is found the mut- 
ton flesh peculiar to first-rate animals ; which flesh is 



100 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

found to spread or expand itself more rapidly than any 
other, but with a sufficient degree of firmness. Under 
short fine wool is found extra firm or hard flesh, which 
does not expand or grow in proportion. With thin-set 
strong wool we find the animal to have a wide objec- 
tionable head, with loose or coarse-grained flesh, want- 
ing in quality in due proportion to the wool it bears ; 
and the animal is never, in consequence, known to 
spread wide, but represents its degree of fatness along 
the back. In the selection of the male animals, it is 
even better to choose a strong animal from a well bred 
flock of the same family, than to step out of " the line " 
to cross with a large sheep of inferior blood, as practice 
has shown that the produce from a large inferior-looking 
sheep selected from a pure-blood flock, has been far 
better than those produced from an apparently good 
sheep selected from a cross-bred flock. " Almost wholly 
agreeing with the preceding remarks of Mr. Smith, I 
shall for the present merely observe that whilst correct 
in a great measure as regards English husbandry, they 
do not wholly apply to California, especially in its 
existing condition. Another occasion will, however, 
arise to refer to them, which I shall do when I discuss 
the question of the fineness of the wool as connected 
with early maturing qualities of sheep. As an illustra- 
tion of another subject, I shall again quote Mr. Smith, 
who observes : " Such is the effect of soil and situation, 
that when animals have been equally divided and kept 
apart for twelve months, upon opposite soils, they have 
scarcely resembled each other when placed together 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 101 

again, beyond the family head/' 7 Mr. Smith also re- 
marks : " The crossing of pure breeds has been a subject 
of great interest of late amongst every class of breeders. 
While all agree that the first cross may be attended 
with good results, there exists a diversity of opinion 
upon the future movements, or putting the crosses 
together. 

With the exception of the old Merino and Byeland, 
which are pretty nearly the types of each other, espe- 
cially so when picked animals are chosen as the repre- 
sentatives of each, all the very fiue-woolecl breeds at 
present known are most awkward-looking, unthrifty 
animals. This remark applies to the Saxon-Australian 
and French Merinos, whether the native animal or of 
American rearing. Mr. Howitt, in his usually graphic 
style, well describes the German Merino : " One thing 
which surprises an Englishman is to see what wretched 
creatures are the sheep which produce the famous 
Saxony wool. In fact it is a prevailing idea that the 
leaner the sheep the finer the wool. It is the wool to 
which all the attention of the grower is devoted, and 
therefore, generally speaking, a more miserable assem- 
blage of animals than a flock of German sheep is not to 
be seen. On the plains they wander under the care of a 
shepherd, and for the most part on fallows or stubbles, 
to pick up odds and ends, rather than to enjoy a regular 
pasture. You may see them penned on a blazing fallow, 
where not a trace of vegetable matter is to be seen, for 
the greater part of a summer day, which, in this climate, 
is pretty much like being roasted alive. " Whether 



102 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

there exists a real or it is only a fancied necessity that 
in order to enable sheep to grow fine wool, they must 
first become frightful starvelings, is a question, perhaps, 
difficult to decido ; whether an altered mode of manage- 
ment could not compensate somewhat in degree, if not 
altogether, for this miserable, half-starved system of 
management, or rather mismanagement, I am not at the 
present moment prepared to offer a decisive opinion ; 
yet I cannot avoid expressing a very strong belief that 
there does not exist any such necessity. On the con- 
trary, that the ungainly, gaunt appearance of these sheep 
is the result of neglect ; rather than that fine wool can 
only be raised from uncouth animals. It is probable 
that at a future part of this work an endeavor will be 
made to explain this apparent coincidence of fine wool 
and ugly carcase ; to do so at present would interrupt 
the course set out. If, however, this little volume should 
meet with sufficient patronage to justify to publication 
of another edition, I shall endeavor not only to set 
forth the probable reasons of this remarkable coinci- 
dence, and also adduce others to show that the same may 
advantageously be obviated. 

THE YOLK. 

The substance known as the yolk possesses an extra- 
ordinary interest to such as purpose raising the fleeces 
of their flock to the highest standard of excellence. 
According to my own experience this peculiar sub- 
stance makes its appearance most abundantly in the 
American variety known by the name of the French 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 103 

Merino ; next in the Spanish, Australian and German, 
in the order set forth. Such American-French Merinos 
as I have seen grazed in California possessed this qual- 
ity in a most marked degree, accompanied, however, 
with a very great amount of free grease. The yolk 
which derives its name ftom its consistency and egg-like 
appearance, has usually been supposed to exercise a 
favorable influence on the quality of wool in consequence 
of its softening character, similar to that of oil on 
leather. The opinion of the writer is that it performs 
a double function, namely, that of nourishing the root 
of the pile in the first place, and subsequently preserv " 
ing the elastic, softened character of the staple, owing 
to its ameliorating influence. These properties will be 
better understood when it is stated that the yolk is 
chiefly composed of a potash, or what is generally known 
as soft soap, intermixed with some free fat, or rather 
oil, and small amounts of carbonate, chloride and acetate 
of potash, with a little carbonate of lime, probably in 
the form of earthy soap, — thus giving greater consis- 
tence to the yolk, and not improbably its color. When 
there is a deficiency of yolk, the staple of the wool is 
dry, harsh and weak ; the entire fleece becomes thin and 
hairy. In cold, northern countries, when the yolk is in 
deficient quantity, it is not unusual to smear or salve 
the sheep about the month of November. This is a 
practice well known in the north of England and Scot- 
land. The salve or mixture is usually American tar 
and damaged butter, or fat grease of any sort ; some- 
times oil is used. I shall omit a descriptive account of 



104 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

the mode of laying on the salve at present. I will, 
however, in a future part of this paper point out when 
salving might probably be useful. There can be no 
doubt of the benefit of salving ; all experience has shown 
in cold climates that the wool upon a smeared sheep 
grows much faster than upon those that are not salved ; 
the wool of the former feels warmer and much more 
kindly to the touch. Mr. Boyd, in a prize essay which 
appeared in the Highland Transactions relating to this 
process of salving, states : " I am decidedly of opinion 
that however perfect the structure of wool may be if 
produced in the absence of an oily or saporaceous sub. 
stance, it cannot possess the requisite properties of a 
clothing material/ 7 As a remarkable instance of this, 
Mr. Boyd relate that " Mr. Shepherd, late of Kirkton- 
hill, parish of Channelkirk, purchased from the Duke of 
Athol a number of Merino ewes and tups, the former at 
<£13 sterling, the latter at £26. The first clip was 
partly grown in Spain and partly in Scotland. The 
wool was of the most beautiful description, and when 
manufactured into cloth the result was most satisfactory. 
The second year's clip was fabricated into the same de- 
scription of goods as the first, but on account of the 
wool having in a great measure lost its felting proper- 
ties, the result was anything but satisfactory. For sev- 
eral years after, the clip was manufactured into flannel 
and hosiery yarns, for which purpose the material was 
found admirably adapted. A sample of the first, second, 
third and fourth years' wool was carefully preserved, 
and at the request of Mr. Jarvis, the Treasurer of the 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 105 

Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, eacli 
sample was separately examined, under the skilful man- 
agement of an eminent optician, with a powerful micro- 
scope. After having repeatedly examined the various 
samples of wool, not the slightest difference could be 
discovered in their structure. In its manufacture, how- 
ever, it was proved beyond doubt that the felting prop- 
erties of the second, third and fourth years' wool were 
most materially diminished. It was quite obvious to 
the unassisted eye, that the first clip had been much 
more copiously supplied with yolk than any of the 
others ; to the diminution of this secretion was generally 
attributed the falling off of the felting or milling prop- 
erties. During the time the Merino sheep were in the 
possession of Mr. Shepherd, which was from 1809 until 
1818, they throve exceedingly well ; and it was the 
opinion of the shepherds in that neighborhood that if 
they had been smeared, they would have suited that dis- 
trict of country uncommonly well.* At Mr. Shepherd's 
sale Mr. Borthwick, of Crookston, became the purchaser 
of the Merinos in question, and, strange to say, the very 
first clip produced upon the banks of the Gala the 
fleeces were found to be mixed with innumerable brown 
hairs of a spiral form, which measured more than double 
the length of the wool, and in a few years the brown 
hairs were so numerous that it became impracticable to 
manufacture the wool into any description of goods un- 
til previously rolled into small bundles and chopped 

*In this opinion the author of this book does not concur. 



106 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



with a knife." It may be observed that the locality 
where these Merinos were first domiciled was on the 
English borders, where the climate is not only milder 
but very much drier than the greater part of Britain 
notwithstanding which, deterioration is seen to have 
taken place ; a removal, however, to another position 
still farther north, and possessed of a more humid and 
cold climate, hastened the change from a woolly to a 
partially hairy covering, forming a remarkable instance 
of the wonderful adaptative power existing in life to 
meet climatic and other changes. 

I conclude this chapter by a few remarks on a subject 
already alluded to, namely, the practice of smearing, as it 
is possible that salving sheep, under proper conditions, 
may prove advantageous to California sheep owners, es- 
pecially so to those whose ranches may possess an up- 
land or or elevated character, or resident in the north- 
ern portion of the State. Perhaps, however, it may be 
more particularly applicable to the position of sheep 
farmers in Oregon, Washington Territory, or Vancou- 
ver's Island. Smearing, as adopted in the North of 
England and Scotland, consists in rubbing on the back 
of the sheep a species of ointment composed of tar and 
some common kind of grease ; American tar is preferred 
for the purpose. The usual proportions are eight 
pounds of tar to six pounds of rancid butter, well inter- 
mixed until they form a fluid ointment. The smearer 
commences operations by dividing and opening the 
fleece along the back of the sheep, laying the skin bare ; 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 107 

he then dips his finger into a pot containing the oint- 
ment, and by drawing the finger along the skin thus 
bared, a portion of the ointment becomes fixed on it. 
This being finished, he opens the fleece in like manner 
adjoining to the part that he first operated upon, and 
lays the mixture on the skin in the same manner ; and 
so on until the whole side of the animal has been simi- 
larly treated, after which he proceeds in like manner 
with the other side. The cost averages in England 
from nine to twelve cents per sheep. The practice has 
been decried by some ; amongst others by the Ettrick 
Shepherd ; the opinion of the latter being that if sheep 
are supplied with a sufficiency of food, smearing will be 
found unnecessary. That abundance of food will in 
some degree counteract the ill effect of severe cold is 
perfectly correct, but I know from no small amount of 
experience that if sheep occupying inclement, mountain, 
ous districts are not smeared, and the winter season 
proves inclement, the worst results to both animals and 
fleece have followed. 

Few would be more disposed than myself to pay def- 
erenee to any opinion given by the Ettrick Shepherd, 
whose works, whether in prose or verse, display a com- 
prehensiveness and acuteness of intellect of the highest 
order.* Still, it must be reinbembered, that the Ettrick 
Shepherd spent the greater part of his shepherd life in 
the comparatively sheltered district of Yarrow. The 

* As an instance of beautiful and true descriptiveness, may be 
mentioned, his truthful account of shepherding during a snow storm. 



108 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

highest hill in Ettrick only reaching 2,200 feet, whilst 
the vales are somewhat sheltered and warm. 

The evil effects of smearing arise from its staining 
the wool, to prevent this effect numerous substitutes 
have been proposed, but none on trial in mountain dis- 
tricts have proved so effective as tar and grease ; it 
appears to me that this old-fashioned substitute or aid 
to the yolk, for it is replacing the deficient amount of 
that substance that its benefits chiefly depend, may by 
the aid of modern chemistry, be so improved as to 
lessen, if not altogether prevent, any loss in the opera- 
tion, so far as coloring the wool is connected therewith. 
Should such an opinion prove true, it might be found 
desirable on those parts of the Northern Pacific coast, 
where snow or frost establishes themselves for any 
lengthened period, to employ some similar agent, in 
order to sustain the animal from the effect of excessive 
cold, and thus promote the growth of the fleece during 
the vicissitudes of the winter seasons. 

In the districts where smearing is adopted, it is usual 
to commence operations the latter part of October or 
the beginning of November ; as smeared sheep suffer 
very much from the effects of cold, if frost sets in prior 
to the wool having risen from the skin. After the wool 
has risen from the skin the animal does not suffer ; from 
the time of smearing until the rise takes place, a fort- 
night generally elapses. Respecting the benefit de- 
rived from smearing, I may repeat what Mr. Boyd, who 
has already been quoted, states. Mr. B. observes, that 
" from a given quantity of salved wool, I have invaria- 






SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 109 

lly found that a greater number of yards of cloth can 
be produced than from unlaid, and upon examination 
will be found superior, both in quality and make. Un- 
laid wool, however fine, if produced in this country, 
(Scotland,) can with little propriety be appropriated to 
the fabrication of cloth, where the felting properties are 
required. 

B R A T T I N G . 

This is a means of protecting sheep from the inclem- 
cies of adverse weather. Until engaged in searching 
statistics and other matters for this work, I was under 
the impression that it was first introduced into Scotland ; 
nor am I aware of any other country in which it has ever 
been generally practiced."* In Scotland the use of brats 
on some farms has been firmly established, and as there 
exists every reasonable ground for believing that this 
mode of protection is founded on a rational theory, a 
probability exists that time will see it gradually ex- 
tended. Bratting appears to me the readiest mode by 
which the California sheep owner can obtain the shelter 
needed during the brief, but sometimes severe weather, 
which occasionally takes place in this State. On this 
subject, Mr. M. Turk observes in a prize essay on the 

* The '-pellites ovibus,* 7 mentioned by Horace, Ode VI. , book 2, 
are understood by his commentators to mean, sheep covered with 
skins, to preserve their fleeces from the weather. Varro seems to 
mention the custom, distinctly. Lord Clive, the celebrated conqueror 
of India, was, I believe, the first to try the system of bratting in 
modern times. 



110 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

Protection of Sheep, that " after exhausting every prac- 
ticable means of yielding protection and shelter to 
sheep on the hills, by the erection of stalls, etc., it was 
still found that a more constant and effectual method 
was necessary, and salving was resorted to, as the 
cheapest and most likely way of attaining three import- 
ant objects, namely : defence from the cold, security 
from the ravages of the scab, and the destruction of 
vermin. It has long been known to those interested in 
the management of sheep, that more protection is 
afforded by bratting, than the use of any salve." " We 
have found from our own experience, (says Mr. Turk,) 
and we have not heard the fact doubted by any one 
conversant with the management of sheep, that no salve 
hitherto tried has afforded a protection equal to brat- 
ting ; under this treatment, the flock will be in higher 
condition, and if so, the clip of wool will be greater 
and the loss by death will be considerably lessened, 
and affords the means of bringing some of the more re- 
duced of the old ewes through the winter, which could 
not otherwise have survived in a high and exposed dis- 
trict. When the brat is taken off in April, the wool 
will be found to have retained the yolk, and will appear 
quite yellow. When examined, it will be found to be 
soapy and sound, and free from the defect which wool- 
staplers call husky and pinny, that is, dry and brittle, 
which occasions much loss in the manufacture. When 
washed, its lightness is unimpaired, in fact rather in- 
creased, owing to the soap employed in the bathing and 
the yolk which is retained. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. Ill 

Mr. Boyd has observed regarding the brat, that it is 
the rarest occurrence that a kcmp hair is found in the 
fleece. Under its covering, the fleece is not only free 
from impurities, but possesses in an eminent degree 
felting properties ; and from its extreme pliability and 
rich silvery appearance, it is found admirably adapted 
for the white of any mixture, particularly that of cloth. 
Indeed there is no other description of wool produced 
in Scotland nearly so well fitted for the purpose. When 
British skin wool, or fleece produced without any greasy 
or saponaceous substance, is used for the white of a 
mixture in cloth, I have almost invariably found it to 
rise from the surface, indicating its unfitness for that 
species of manufacture." Cloth suited for making brats 
can be manufactured from the refuse wool of the coarsest 
woolen manufactures. When intended to be practiced, 
the following general rules may prove of service. In 
place of fitting the cloth to every sheep, the best plan 
is to select a sheep of the average size of its class, as 
ewes, hogs, lambs, &c, afterwards measure and cut the 
quantity of cloth required. When the cloth has been 
applied to the animal and its proper dimensions ascer- 
tained, the parts should then be marked to which the 
different straps and strings are to be sewed, to hold it 
in its proper place. A strap is fixed to one of the front 
corners, in a direction to pass beneath the throat, and 
be sewed to the other corner ; other straps are made to 
pass under the belly. These straps are only sewed at 
first at one end ; the other end is sewed after the brat 
is fitted on, so as to keep it tight in its place. The 



112 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

straps should be made of a soft and somewhat elastic 
material, in order that they may not chafe or injure the 
skin when ihe sheep is moving about. Perhaps the 
cheapest brats that could be made in Southern Califor- 
nia would be of common sheepskins, waterproofed. 

I shall close this chapter by earnestly enjoining on 
the sheep farmers never to shear lambs nor sheep more 
than once a year, and that always at as early a period 
as possible after it may be safely assumed that the rainy 
season is over. Should a mistake occur on this point, 
any damage may be prevented if the system of bratting 
is adopted, for according to my own experience, which 
has extended to six years, no danger would arise after 
April has expired ; for although tolerably heavy rains 
have occurred in May and even June, accompanied by 
cold winds on the coast range, I have never witnessed 
these inclemencies so great as to be likely to injure 
sheep ; especially as at such seasons and under such 
circumstances, there always exists an abundance of pas- 
turage. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Qualities and Uses of Wool. — Characteristics of good Wool — Of 
the staple — Different qualities of Wool on various parts of Sheep — 
Carding Wool — Combing Wool — Serrated character of Wool — Felt- 
ing properties — Table of fineness— Prices of different species of 
English Wool in 1858 Fine wool hats — Miners^ hats — San Francisco 
and Mission woollen mills. 

Good wool should have these properties : The fibre 
should be of uniform thickness from root to point, when 
it is said to be true ; the finer the wool the smaller in 
diameter it is ; it should be elastic on being stretched 
longways ; tough, not easily broken; its surface should 
have a shining silvery lustre ; it should be of great 
density. 

OF THE STAPLE. 

All the fibres should be of the same length, otherwise 
it will be pointed ;* the end of the staple should be as 
bright as the bottom, and not seem composed of dead 
wool ; the entire staple should be strong ; it strength 
may be tested in the following manner : Take the bot- 
tom of the staple between the finger and the thumb of 
the left hand, and its top between those of the right; 
the wool must be thus held tight and moderately 
stretched ; when thus held, let the third finger of the 
right hand play across the fibres. If the sound pro- 

* Lamb's wool is usually pointed. 



114 WOOL AND ITS USES. 

duccd by this action prove firm and sharp, and some- 
what musical, the strength of the wool is without flaw.* 
The sound will vary in intensity according to the fine- 
ness of the wool — coarse Lincolnshire yielding one much 
louder than Electoral Merinos. In proportion, however, 
to the diameter of the wool, the latter yields a stronger 
sound than the former, owing to the greater density of 
fine wool — in all cases where animals yielding the latter 
have had Cair treatment as regards food and shelter. 
If the fiores do not break on repeatedly separating the 
hands by jerks with a force proportioned to the strength 
of the wool, the staple is sound. If they break, the 
wool is unsound — the staple will always break at the 
place which issued from the skin of the sheep, when it 
was stinted of food, had some disease, or exposed to 
inclement weather, whether arising from rains or low- 
ness of temperature. It will not break at two places 
simultaneously; this has to be tried more than once, 
because whenever any of the causes named have occurred 
like results will be found to have followed ; so that it 
sometimes happens, if the sheep have been diseased 
and badly kept, two, three or more such weak points will 
be discovered by carefully examining the staple. Plia- 
bility is an important property in the staple ; inflexi- 
bility and brittleness arc bad qualities. 

A good fleece should have the points of all its staples 
of equal length, otherwise it will be a pointy one. The 

* It requires some practice to acquire this art when the wool is very 
fine. With English long wool it is easy enough to accomplish. 






WOOL AND ITS USES. 115 

staples should be set close together ; and the fleece 
should be clean. A pointy, watery, or dirty fleece is 
the cause of much waste to the manufacturer, in order 
to bring the wool to a proper state for his purpose. 
One of the most desirable properties of wool is softness. 
Generally speaking, California fleeces tend towards, 
rather than from, this quality; unfortunately, however, 
in many cases marred by the rotten, dirty, and uneven 
quality of the staple, owing to exposure to the vicissi- 
tudes of the weather and want of food. This softness 
does not depend on fineness of fibre, but on an inherent 
elasticity like that of india-rubber, which, although 
yielding to the touch, immediately recovers its original 
form on the force which withheld it being withdrawn. 
There should be no hairs in wool — no long ones which 
are easily distinguished from wool, which, when present, 
have obtained for such fleeces the name of bearded ; nor 
short ones, soft and fine like cat's hair, which are called 
kemps. The long hairs are frequently of a different 
color from the wool. The farmer who breeds sheep 
having fleeces with pointy staples, thinly set on, and of 
unequal lengths — who stints his sheep of food at times, 
producing wool of unequal size — who does not wash his 
sheep clean — or, having washed them clean, allows their 
wool to be dirtied before being clipped, injures his clip 
of wool to a serious extent. 

Any person, on the slightest inspection, may observe 
that the wool which covers a sheep consists of different 
qualities, the coarser being found on the lower and the 



116 WOOL ADN ITS USES. 

finer on the upper and more forward portions of the 
body. The finest wool will be perceived on the shoul- 
ders, and along the top of the back to the rump ; the 
next best grows below the shoulders, running along the 
ribs to the rump ; coarser still on the haunches ; below 
the belly it is (especially amongst the coarser wooled 
breeds) coarse and detached, and is not classified with 
the other varieties. 

Attention by farmers to the different classes of wool 
required in the various manufactures of woollen and 
worsted goods, would be the means of directing them 
to produce not only that variety of wool calculated to 
make the largest return at the place where they might 
be located, but also direct them to what market their 
peculiar quality was in most demand, and where it 
would, consequently, obtain the highest price. As a 
general thing, manufacturers require three kinds of 
wool : one for carding, another for combing, and 
intermediate. 

C ARDING WOOL 

Should be short, under four inches in length, fine, true, 
very elastic ; when drawn out lengthways it ought to 
immediately retract to its original form, on withdrawing 
the force that drew it out. 

The object of carding is to break the wool completely, 
to intimately blend the whole, so as to form a thin roll 
of a very slight texture, being merely held together by 
the natural serrations, which will shortly be noticed at 



WOOL AND ITS USES. 117 

greater length. Wool susceptible of this treatment in 
a high degree, is capable of being manufactured into the 
finest compact fabrics, and by the aid of the shears pos- 
sessed also of a smooth surface. 

COMBING WOOL 

Should be more than four inches long, fine, true, but 
little elastic ; in length each pile when operated on by 
being submitted -to the machine, should easily be drawn 
out into spirals. The comb has not only the effect of 
laying the piles straight and even, but also removes the 
shorter and longer piles as also the knotty kinks. 

The distinction in the spinning of carding and comb- 
ing wool, is thus described by Mr. Luccock : "In 
twisting a woolen thread when the staple has been pre- 
viously broken and the fragments in the utmost disorder, 
they become united merely by their natural hooked ness, 
the turning of the wheel rolls them together without 
arrangement, and they are placed in every possible 
direction. But in spinning a worsted thread, when 
every hair has been previously disposed at the side of 
others in the most regular order, the pile is drawn out 
in the direction of its length, every single hair being 
parallel to all those which lie near it, then become 
twisted in a spiral form, something like the threads of 
a compound screw. If these hairs contracted their 
length in any considerable degree, they could not be 
correctly arranged, nor drawn out in that regular order 



118 WOOL AND ITS USES. 

which the work requires, but would be twisted into a 
thread of an irregular and crumpled form — a circum- 
stance injurious to worsted yarn, and to the goods 
made from it.* 

Intermediate between the short and long' wool, are 
the varieties used chiefly in the hosiery manufacture. 

The late Mr. Youatt was the first to draw attention 
to the serrated character of wool ; he also inferred that 
the felting property consisted chiefly in the ratio of 
these serrations, the more numerous they were, the 
greater he inferred the felting- property would be. 
Professor Simmonds attributes the felting quality to 
exist only in connexion with the number of spirals, wool 
being possessed of good or bad felting properties in 
proportion to the number of spirals existing within a 
given lineal space — the greater the number of curls the 
fitter for felting purposes. On carefully examining the 
matter, 1 am disposed to believe that in the curly char- 
acter, the felting property rests more in degree than 
upon the number of serrations ; the best fulling wool, 
however, unites both. It appears, however, to the 
writer, that either alone or combined, the properties 
noticed, do not account for all the phenomena and 
anomalies connected with felting cloth. 

The comparative fineness of the pile of wool and the 
number of serrations, in the following breeds of sheep, 
were measured by Mr. Youatt, with the micrometer : 

* Luccock on Wool. 



WOOL AND ITS USES. 119 

Diameter Berratfoni 

of one inch. in the inch. 

Merino Wool L-750th 2400 

Merino Picklock L-750th 2560 

Merino Saxony- I-N loih 2720 

Leicester l-600th 1860 

Ducan Black MOOOth 1 280 

Odessa l-750th 2080 

Wallachian , l-750th 2080 

Australia 1-7 j()i h 1 920 

Now South Wales l-750th 2080 

Now Sou Hi Wales Mr. w. Arthur's l-7«S0tli 2100 

Yau Pieman's Land l-750th 

Southdown l-660th 2080 

Wiltshire. WOOth 1800 

Ryeland L-750th 2420 

Cheviot Hill fed 1-50011) 1800 

Cheviot Hill good pasture .,. mo 

Norfolk l-. r )80th 1 000 

Lincoln l-LS()tii 1280 

Irish «60th 1920 

In the preceding table it will be seen what effect the 
difference of pasture has upon the character of wool, on 
comparing' the two examples of Cheviot sheep. It may 
be remarked, also, that the above table was made be- 
tween thirty and forty years ago ; since which the Aus- 
tralian varieties of wool have been greatly improved, 

J n no description of textile manufactures has the 
agency of machinery had such an equalizing effect in the 
value of the raw material as in those relating to wool. 
Early in the present century the highest priced wools 
were worth $1 80 per pound, whilst the commonest only 
obtained tan to twelve cents per pound. For some time 
the demand exceeded the supply of the best wool. 



120 WOOL AND ITS USES. 

About forty years ago a practice commenced of cutting 
long wools into short lengths for the manufacture of 
common woolen cloths ; this, with the introduction of 
cotton warps and the tendency of Southdown fleeces to 
become heavier and coarser, reduced the price of South- 
down fleeces very considerably, as they had become too 
coarse for the carder, and not long enough for the 
comber. This difference in price stimulated the manu- 
facturer to improve his combing machinery so far as to 
enable him to use the Southdown wool for combing pur- 
poses. This change was hastened the more from the 
fact that the farmer, by the greater extension of the 
green crop system of husbandry, which furnished him 
with abundance of winter food for his sheep, was grad- . 
ually increasing the weight of the fleece and the length 
of the staple, as will be seen by the tables which will 
follow. At the present time Southdown varieties of 
wool obtain comparatively the best prices and readiest 
sale ; Electoral wool not being worth more than sixty 
cents per pound, and Australian runs from twenty to 
thirty-six cents per pound. The commonest Buenos 
Ayres wool may probably be worth ten cents per 
pound. 

The following list of prices of English wools was, I 
believe, drawn up for the Euglish Board of Trade. I 
am not aware that the prices greatly differ at the pres- 
ent time. Since the preceding was written I have seen 
a London Prices Current of Australian and German 
wools, which fully corroborates the preceding estimate 



WOOL AND ITS USES. 121 

of the value of those varieties, which justifies me in be- 
lieving that the following rates are too low at the pres- 
ent moment for British wools, as, from the Bradford 
Circular, there appears to be a scarcity of worsted va- 
rieties : 

PRICE OF ENGLISH. WOOLS IN 1855. 

Lincoln Wethers. — Twenty-five cents per pound ; hog, 

26 cents do. Very fine long wool, suitable for lustres, 
obtains a higher figure. This wool rises and falls ac- 
cording to Alpaca wool. 

Leicester Wethers. — Twenty -five cents per pound ; 
hog, 25 to 26 cents. 

Cotswold Wethers. — Twenty-five cents per pound ; hog, 
25 to 26 cents. 

Southdown. — Considerable differences exist in this 
variety of wool, according to the locality from which it 
is derived. Wool from ewes and wethers worth 26 cts.; 
teg do. 27 to 28 cents. 

Hampshire Down. — A short wool, very similar to 
Southdown in general character ; staple rather longer, 
but not quite so fine. Ewes and wethers, 26 cents ; tegs, 

27 cents per pound. 

Norfolk Down. — The down wool grown in Norfolk is 

generally soft in its nature, but owing to its frequently 

being full of light blue sand, its value is much reduced. 

Some of the best and cleanest is a very rich, beautiful 

wool. Value of ewes and wethers, 25 cents per pound 

if sandy, 27 cents if clean ; tegs, 27 to 28 cents. 
6 



122 WOOL AND ITS USES. 

Shropshire Downs. — Generally longer in the staple 
and with more lustre than other Down wools. The 
fleeces vary considerably, according to the original pro- 
portion of short-wooled or long-wooled blood crossed 
with the breed. Value of wethers, 26 to 27cents ; tegs, 
27 to 28 cents per pound. 

Dorset. — Rather longer in the staple and not quite so 
fine as the Downs, but for combing purposes quite as 
valuable. Clean, white, soft wool Dorset fleeces was 
worth, at the period named, 26 cents per pound ; lambs' 
wool 32 to 36 cents. It may be remarked that it is 
usual in Dorset to shear the lambs — a practice, how- 
ever, to be deprecated. 

Ryeland. — Some of this wool found its way into the 
market, although described as a breed nearly extinct, 
and the wool as formerly used for clothing purposes, 
and as very fine and short, valued at 27 cents per pound, 
an estimate lower probably by ten per cent, in conse- 
quence of the small parcels in which it is brought to 
market. Should, however, the staple be lengthened, as 
I have no doubt but it would be if introduced into Cal- 
ifornia, would form a very valuable wool, and would 
cross with Australia Merinos to the mutual advantage 
of each other. 

Anglo Merino. — This wool, principally a cross of the 
Merino with the Hampshire Down, appears to be still 
known at the chief wool markets in England. The 
value is given for wethers 28 cents ; hogs, 30 cents per 
pound. 



WOOL AND ITS USES. 123 

Radnor and Welsh Mountain, — In the account from 
which this is derived, these two are classed together 
and described as a moderate combing wool, somewhat 
coarse and kempy, with values represented as obtaining 
25 cents per pound for wether and 27 cents for teg wool. 
It may be remarked, however, that the above prices 
form no criterion as regards the value of the Radnor, 
Forest of Clun or Ryeland sheep, if transported to such 
a mild climate as California. 

Cheviots. — This is a small haired wool of medium 
length, suitable for worsted and woolen purposes. It 
is a soft, rich wool, much liked by the manufacturers. 
In the districts where the sheep are smeared the value 
of the wool is considerably reduced. Value of ewe and 
wether wool, 25 to 26 cents per pound ; of hogs, 27 to 
28 cents. 

Prices of Wool of Cross Breeds in 1855. 

"Wethers and Ewes, Hogs and Tegs, 

Per pound. Per pound. 

Leicester and Southdown 25 @ — cts. 26 @ 27 cts. 

Leicester and Shropshire Downs 27 @ — " — @ 28 " 

Leicester and Highland 18 @ 20 " 20 @ 22 " 

Leicester and Bampton 24 @ 25 " 25 @ 26 " 

Leicester and Norfolk Downs 25 @ — " 27 @ — " 

Cotswold and Southdown 25 @ — " 27 @ — " 

Cotswold and Shropshire Down 24 @ 25 " 27 @ — « 

Lincoln and Southdown 25 @ 26 " 27 @ 28 " 

Lincoln and Exmon 24 @ — " 25 @ — " 

Cheviot and Southdown 25 @ 27 " 28 @ — " 

Highland and Southdown . ..26@28 " — @ — " 

Dorset aud Southdown 26 @ 27 " —@— u 

♦Dorset and Lambs' wool — @ — " 36 @ 40 " 

fMerino and Romney Marsh 28 @ 29 " 30 @ — " 

* The lambs are shorn in this district. 

f This cross forms a very beautiful fleece, and makes an excellent 
combing wool, being fair, clean and rich. When warps were made of 
worsted it realized a high price. 



124 WOOL AND ITS USES. 

Another cause has arisen for the approximation in 
price which has been gradually taking place during the 
last forty years, between fine wool and the coarser 
varieties, is the fact, that open woolen goods, as Tweeds, 
etc., have become more fashionable, and for warm cli- 
mates found mnch more conducive to health. There 
has consequently been a far less proportionate demand 
over the period named for fine broadcloths, as compared 
with the increased amount of population and accumu- 
lation of wealth for the same length of time, to say 
nothing of the introduction of civilized wants into 
uncivilized regions ; whilst on the other hand, open 
qualities of woolens have become and are becoming 
more into use daily ; and as the grounds for this prefer- 
ence are based upon sound theoretrical data, it is fair 
to infer, that high priced fine wools will never again be 
so much in demand as they have been. 

Amongst the minor uses of the very finest wool, such 
as extremely fine Saxony lambs' wool, is that of making 
the bodies for beaver or stuff hats, a manufacture which 
has been almost annihilated since the introduction of 
silk hats. In California, however, where the hats worn 
are usually fine felts, or bodies, it might be supposed 
that the whole of those used in the State might be made 
here, and that from California grown wool ; little capital 
would be required, as the plant for that part of the 
hatter's business is of an inexpensive character. 

Of more importance to wool growers is the fact that 
already there are established at San Francisco two 



WOOL AND ITS USES. 125 

woollen mills, whose agregate annual consumption of 
all varieties of wool approaches one million pounds ; 
only requiring a moderate domestic patronage to double 
or treble their present capacity within a very brief 
period. The production of wool in California was es- 
timated last year to amount to three millions of pounds, 
whilst the population by th6 census taken was much less 
than half a million. It is, however, generally supposed 
that the returns for the census were under estimates ; 
which, together with the increase of population which 
has taken place since that time, renders it in the highest 
degree probable that the population of California, Ore- 
gon and Washington Territory is not less at the present 
moment than 600,000 souls, consuming on an average, 
in one form or other, ten pounds of wool per head, or 
double the total weight of last year's yield. In making 
this calculation, I believe I am averaging the consump- 
tion at too low a rate. Would it not be a wise economy 
to purchase the home-made article, even though a frac- 
tional higher price be given, by the inhabitants of this 
and the adjoining State and Territory, in this infant 
state of the growth of the raw material, as also of its 
manufacture. I am assured, however, by the proprie- 
tors of the works just noticed, that no extra prices are 
needed : that they are able, with the exception of broad- 
cloths, to compete with the imported article. 

It will no doubt be interesting to the bulk of readers, 
to learn a few general particulars respecting the wool- 
len mills now at work at San Francisco, which will be 



126 WOOL AND ITS USES. 

given in the chronological order of their establish- 
ment. 

SAN FEANCISCO WOOLLEN FACTORY. 

They consume 35,000 lbs of wool per month, purchas- 
ing qualities from the lowest to the highest ; but the 
greatest quantity purchased is that known as American 
wool, from which is manufactured the kind of blankets 
in most general use. A very fine blanket, equal to the 
best I have ever seen turned out of the celebrated Roch- 
dale blanket district, is also manufactured to a more 
limited extent, the price being relatively higher. 

One of the most extensive objects of manufacture are 
miners 7 grey blankets, of which there are two or three 
varieties ; one especially useful, and which, I am in- 
formed, has already established a name for its good 
qualities and cheapness, bein^r known by the trade and 
consumers under the name of " Washoes. 77 They are a 
very serviceable, stout article, and from their color not 
so liable to soil when, as must oftentimes, in the majority 
of miners 7 cases, be subjected to hard usage. Others 
are made of various colors, as scarlet, blue,- green, and 
of different sizes and weights. 

These works make on an average one hundred pairs 
of blankets per day, employing in their manufacture 
three sets of cards, four spinning jacks of two hundred 
spindles each, and thirteen looms. One of the proprie- 
tors informed me, at the same time giving it as an illus- 
tration of the general dirty character of California 
wool, that they consumed sixty thousand gallons of 
water per day. 



WOOL AND ITS USES. 127 

THE MISSION WOOLLEN MILLS. 

Do not confine themselves to one article, though 
hitherto they have chiefly produced tweeds from coarse 
to fine ; flannels, chiefly greys and blues for shirts ; some 
blankets ; and possess machinery for making carpets and 
the nrost costly tweeds — the last more expensive than 
superfine broadcloth. The capacity for consuming the 
raw material has been stated to me as equal to 400,000 
lbs. per annum. Extensive additions are contemplated. 

FRONTISPIECE. 

By favor of Messrs. Heyniman, Peck & Co., the pro- 
prietors of the factory, the publisher has been enabled 
to illustrate this publication with an excellent repre- 
sentation of the Pioneer Woolen Mill of California, the 
engraving for which has been executed expressly for 
this work. When, as it is hoped, within only a few 
years, the woolen manufacture of California will more 
than have quadrupled its present capacity, it will pro- 
bably become a matter of interest with many to possess 
a correct representation of this mother mill, as origi- 
nally constructed. Its delineation was, therefore, con. 
sidered a fitting frontispiece for a work like the present. 
The date of t\e erection is A. D. 1859. 



('II A PTER VIM. 

Ojj u,)i;\i v Pastures, Benefloial effects <>r (lie treading of Sheep 
[injurious effects on Wool of burr olover Remedies suggested 

luisite flavor of Mutton and Venison, fed where the mountain 
thyme flourishes Gregarlousness of pasture grosses, 

The composition of pasturage, in an economical point 
of view, is oi' equal importance with the question oi' 
breed, for on the species oi' i'ooo\ most prevalent will 
chiefly depend what variety oi' sheep will pay the best. 
As a usual thing, the pastures of California contain the 
clovers in considerable abundance ami variety, inter- 
spersed throughout nil the country embraced within my 
own observation ; some kinds are known, (especially on 
the sandy soils,) to bo oi' -a very dwarfy character, these 
may improve when well stocked ami trodden down by 
sheep, tor it is a. well ascertained Faot that no means 

are so powerful in producing a thick sward as that oi' 

treading into the soil the droppings of sheep; hence 

the old Spanish proverb, which I have adopted as a. 
motto to this work: "WHEREVER THE FOOT OF 'nil-: 
BHEEP TOUCHES THE LAND is TURNED [NTO GOLD." 
Although a Spanish proverb, its realization has long 
been known to the English light land tanner, this 
animal on one class oi' light soils, being used in place oi' 
a mechanical presser, and also to consolidate the 

ground, by folding them on young crops of the cereal 

grains, especially when the latter are over luxuriant 






I'A.'I I I I 'I 

during their oai lici bh ; thu obtaining a nice bite 

for which in return the more consolidated charactei of 
the soil and the subsequent mperior tilling of the grain 
on cquent on their pi <• ui o, afford s moi o than 
remunerating compen ation« The benefit ari Ing from 
this practice of folding sheep, so prevalent in the chalk 
lands of England at a former period, has been i at 

tributed to i wo circuni tance namely, the con folidatlon 
ofthesoilari ing from their pre ure, and the benefit of 
their manure; the former If now effected in mai 
in tance by the u *- <>[ Ui** roller, it . n <i<- 

batable point whether the arable land gained more than 
the pa rture land lo - to dre liich tlic latter 

re deprived of in con equence of being withdrawn 
during the night, in order to void on the fallow li<:M • a 
part of the ntfti iment obtained from the pasture! durii 
the day. When H hi taken Into consideration that the 
flocks for fol'Jin;-' piirpoHOH. w*-.n; ofi^n driven three or 
four miles each morning and i perhapi the bull 

of readers will agree wiUi the author that on ( J< 
:i balance of the benefits and evils arining from the 
practice, the latter predominated, and would i< : 

VMMr.i'A it U) Ij;jlV(; l>< <;h Iilmidoiiwl <;nli<r tll21.ll it h 

been, had it not been fostered by the artificial 

in England to the growth of gi ain ci f 
by what has been called the protective (?) aid of the 

olished. 'i 1 

tbcj roller sind kcumi p. 

ber aids, to the ordinary fertilize] nul&ted on 



130 CALIFORNIA PASTURES. 

the farm, have more than counterbalanced any loss to 
the arable land arising from withholding the mechanical 
aid and fertilizing agency of sheep on the arable lands, to 
the great benefit of pasture and animals, as the loss of 
muscle and fat of the latter by daily traveling five, six, 
and sometimes eight miles per day, back and forwards 
between the folds and the pasture, must in the course of 
months, have formed a considerable item of animal 
waste. The practice has, however, caused the South- 
down to possess a distinctive trait as compared with 
other breeds that have been improved, namely, a ca- 
padty of traveling without injury, much beyond the 
Leicesters, Cotswolds, etc., and perhaps superior to the 
Cheviots, but inferior to the uncultivated mountain 
varieties ; under special conditions, this may be a 
quality very desirable in a flock. 

The greatest pest in relation to pastures which the 
California farmer has to encounter, is the Burr Clover, 
as it is commonly called. I have been at some trouble 
to investigate the origin and character of this plant, 
and find the general opinion of those who have studied 
the subject is that it is not an indigenous plant, but has 
been introduced from South America. * The specimens 

* This has recalled to my recollection that about thirty years ago, 
when Buenos Ayres wool was introduced into England, it was greatly 
depreciated in value, owing to the prevalence of small burrs, rather 
larger than the clover burr of California. At that time these burrs 
were generally attributed to thistles, but were much smaller than thistle 
burrs or the burdock. Not having for many years had an opportunity 
of examining wool from the Argentine Republic, I cannot say whether 
any remedy has been discovered. 






! 



CALIFORNIA PASTURES. 131 

preserved in the Botanical Collection of the Cali- 
fornia Academy of Sciences* San Francisco, are 
described by Dr. Kellogg, under the title of "Medi- 
cago Intertexta," and " Meclicago Denticulate" by Dr. 

Andrews. It is a species of lucerne, the burr-like 
character of the seed arising from the seed pos- 
sessing stiff, claw-like protrusions, which, when the 
pod curls up as it does in three curls, forms the well- 
known burr. Under the existing state of California 
Agriculture, it is very difficult to suggest a remedy. 
The best which I have seen proposed is to shear the 
sheep before the plant seeds. This mode of obviating 
the evil may be easy enough in the Northern parts of 
California ; but in the Southern counties, I expect will 
be much more difficult of accomplishment : because this 
plant will grow and mature its seeds more rapidly in 
the southern districts. With early autumnal rains and 
a mild winter, many plants in those parts would have 
their seeds perfected by January : in some years I have 
witnessed the perfect seeds growing in the vicinity of 
San Francisco in the month of March. When, however, 
the clipping of the wool can be accomplished without 
other injury arising therefrom before the burr is found, 

* Already at this excellent institution has been made a considerable 
collection of California grasses, which it is very desirable should be 
extended to every part of the State, and especially from every variety 
of soil ; in this way a most valuable amount of knowledge could be 
obtained. Mr. G. Bloomer, the able curator of the botanical depart- 
ment, or Col. Ransom, the Chairman, will cheerfully afford any informa- 
tion to such as are wiliing to assist in this praiseworthy objeet. 



132 CALIFORNIA PASTURES. 

tins course ought always to be followed. I suspect from 
the wool buyers of San Francisco complaining of the 
wool arriving from the South being more burry than 
that arriving from the North, that this plant does seed 
very early in those districts, and consequently will pre- 
vent that avoidance of the evil which in this respect the 
more fortunately situated farmers of the northerly coun- 
ties may conveniently attain. 

In a country where arable husbandry is carried out 
to a considerable extent, a remedy would be attempted 
by fallowing. This, however, is wholly unsuitable to 
the present state of Agriculture in California, and prob- 
ably, also, for a long future. The only remedy that I 
can suggest is, to crowd it out. As far as my observa- 
tions have gone with regard to the pastures of Califor- 
nia, where this obnoxious plant is seen to be most preva- 
lent, I have observed that the latter generally occurs 
where the ground is not well covered with other and 
more useful plants, this openness of herbage affording 
the burr clover a better opportunity of exercising its 
trailing habit ; a thicker vegetation would probably 
check its growth. There are economical means of pro- 
moting the growth of valuable pasture plants, beyond 
what grow spontaneously, by sowing other plants which, 
from their known habits, may be anticipated to remedy 
the evil ; amongst the grasses not indigenous to Califor- 
nia there are, doubtless, many that would greatly aid 
the object desired ; the want, however, of a thorough 
knowledge of the grasses indigenous to the State, for- 






CALIFORNIA PASTURES. 133 

bids my passing an opinion on them. There are, how- 
ever, tw r o or three plants which might probably be 
adopted with advantage for obtaining the object sought, 
namely, such a thick growth of other pasture plants as 

would probably most effectually crowd out the pest. 
One plant is indigenous to the State ; another has a 
close variety, indigenous ; and the third is not, as far as 
I am aware, indigenous, yet from its habits, as displayed 
in Europe, would, doubtlessly, aid the object to be at- 
tained. 

The first I shall allude to is the upright yellow melli- 
lot, often seen growing in the vicinity of the burr clover; 
if thickly sown, its upright character would probably 
greatly aid in crowding out its more diminutive con- 
gener ; at all events, it would, certainly, by its upright 
and overshadowing growth, greatly retard the seeding 
of the burr plant, and would probably prove sufficiently 
effectual as to avoid any injury arising therefrom until 
after shearing time. The next plant I shall recommend 
is the plantago lanceolata, or narrow leaved plantain, 
commonly known amongst English farmers by the name 
of rib-grass ; it is a plant which sheep relish very much, 
has a long tap root, and would probably remain verdant 
the greater part, if not the whole of the year ; as the 
leaves spread out, it is well adapted for the office it is 
intended, namely, that of crowding out a less desirable 
occupant of the soil. A variety of the common broad- 
leaved plaintain is indigenous to California, and renders 
almost beyond a probability, that the narrow-leaved 
kind, if introduced, would form a valuable economical 



134 CALIFORNIA PASTURES. 

pasture plant, independent of the advantage which may- 
be derived by its aiding the displacement of one less de- 
sired by the sheep-owner. The last plant which I shall 
suggest, is the mountain, or wild thyme. On many of 
the light gravelly and sandy soils of England, chiefly 
occupied as sheep walks, sometimes as deer parks, the 
wild thyme is very common, and is relished by sheep 
and deer beyond any other plant, the mutton and venison 
derived from pastures where this plant prevails acquir- 
ing a flavor exquisitely fine beyond that formed on sim- 
ilar animals fed on ordinary pastures ; so well known is 
this, that mutton and venison derived from certain well 
known districts, obtain a higher market price, wholly 
attributable to being in part fed upon this plant ; as its 
natural habitat is a dry one, I feel pretty confident that 
the mountain thyme would flourish on the light dry soil 
of California, and materially aid in diminishing the evil 
effects of the scouring qualities of the early spring grass. 
With these aids, and that of the indigenous clovers, 
there are good reasons for believing that the present 
sparsely distributed pasture plants will become thicken- 
ed, and tend to lessen the injurious consequences of, if 
it does not practically extirpate the burr clover. Should 
the means thus recommended be ever attempted, the 
marked effects of the sheep's golden foot will be at once 
perceived in promoting a thick sward, which once 
formed will be found to retain a verdant appearance 
much longer than the pastures as they now exist, and in 
many cases, probably, conduce to the growth of that 
gread desideratum, perennial verdancy. 



CALIFORNIA PASTURES. 135 

Perhaps there are few things more vague, even in a 
farmer's estimation, than the terms grass and pasture ; 
amongst the more observant, few are acquainted and 
can distinguish more than half a dozen varieties, yet 
the number of grasses amount to nearly two thousand, 
of which more than one hundred merits the special 
attention of farmers. Some are annual, but of the pas- 
ture grasses the bulk are perennial, and it is to the 
latter class that the California farmer ought more espe- 
cially to direct his attention, as some flower and perfect 
themselves early, others late ; the latter being the most 
economically interesting to the California flock master. 
An additional reason exists why the sheep owner on the 
North Pacific should pay a closer attention to the sub- 
ject than has been done, namely, that property of gre- 
garioasness which has been observed generally amongst 
grasses, but especially so with some varieties, by which 
a particular kind of grass is found to flourish better 
when grown in company with other varieties, than 
when grown alone. It has been observed that the 
richest pastures in the world have been found to yield, 
not only the greatest number of plants to the square 
foot, but also those in the greatest variety ; the only 
other plants found being the yarrow and the clovers. 
The flowery mead, so elegant in poetry and beautiful 
to the eye, is by no means favorable to the farmer's 
interest. Exterpation of all plants other than those 
desired by his stock, ought to be his endeavor ; and 



136 CALIFORNIA PASTURES. 

the author hopes the few hints he has previously given, 
will assist so desirable a consummation. 

Amongst the plants which would probably assist in 
crowding* out the burr clover, may be mentioned the 
Alfalfa clover. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Recapitulation. — Money return of fine and medium fleeced Sheep 
compared — Very high blooded animals perhaps not the best to 
breed from — Resume of varieties as adapted for different localities. 

It is unnecessary to repeat at any great length many 
of the preceding observations respecting the unfitness 
of very fine wooled sheep for the existing state of Cali- 
fornia husbandry; perhaps, however, the simplest mode 
of making this evident, is to take as an example, two 
sheep — one yielding a fleece of very fine wool, worth 
say 50 cents per pound and weighing 2\ pounds to the 
fleece, and another yielding 4 or possibly 5 pounds of 
wool worth 30 cents per pound, taking the less weight 
of the latter instance, the difference in money returns 
would only be 5 cents per sheep ; a difference by no 
means adequate to compensate the extra care and atten. 
tion required in order to maintain the finer fleeced 
animal in proper condition. For it must always be 
kept in view that any decadence which may take place 
in a valuable wool, depreciates its market value in a 
far greater degree than any similar interruption in the 
growth of wool of inferior quality ; thus a faultiness in 
a moderately priced wool that would only depreciate 
its value 4 or 5 cents per pound, would in a high priced 
quality diminish its value 25 cents. Under all circum- 



138 EECAPITULATION. 

stances, the writer therefore concludes, that the breeds 
best calculated to repay the farmer in California, at the 
present period, are those which would yield fleeces on 
wethers of about four to six pounds, worth at the port 
of shipment from 25 to 35 cents per pound ; to obtain 
them, it would not require any extraordinary high 
blooded and expensive animals. 

At the present time, it is estimated that there are 
within the territorial limits on which the work chiefly 
treats, at least 800,000 bearing ewes, requiring the ser- 
vices of 40,000 males, at the lowest calculation ; indeed, 
it is difficult to see how so few rams could be made to 
suffice. These numbers, without making any pretensions 
to exactness, will enable the reader to judge of the 
magnitude of the operation, if a general change is 
desired to speedily take place in the ordinary character 
of California wool. Any beneficial effects which have 
taken place in ameliorating the old Mexican fleece, by 
crossing with imported blood, have not entered into the 
above calculation, because, up to the present time, that 
element cannot amount to a very large per centage. 

The question remains for California farmers to de- 
termine, whether they will improve their sheep stock 
by a combined energetic movement, or leave its gradual 
amelioration to individual effort, spread over a longer 
period ; the first, in many ways, would be the most 
economical. The importation of even so small a number 
as 5,000 rams, in the course of one year, would probably 
require an aggregate capital of from $75,000 to 



RECAPITULATION. 139 

$100,000, and in part employ twenty-five vessels, for 
two hundred animals is quite enough to embark in one 
moderately sized ship. 

Reason has already been given why a preference need 
not be given to very high blooded animals, such always 
displaying more conspicuously the effects of pinching 
want in inclement weather; than the varieties whose ex- 
terior form has been less cultivated. In fact, nature has 
put a bound to our exertions. If w6 desire early ma- 
turity and the putting on of flesh and fat on the exterior 
parts of the animal, we must to a certain extent sacri- 
fice hardiness of constitution and fineness of wool ; if 
we are to preserve the two latter qualities, we must sac- 
rifice the two first. It does not, however, appear to me 
that any sacrifice will be made by adopting animals that 
are not prone to put on flesh and fat on the exterior 
parts, but rather, that a gain w^ill be obtained, for the 
internal fat of the slaughtered animal, according to ex- 
isting appearances, is likely in future to prove the most 
valuable part of the sheep's carcass relatively to its 
weight. It eannot be too strongly impressed on the 
farmer's mind, that he must judge not what pays, and 
has paid the best in England or any other place, but 
that which is most likely to make the best return in 
California, taking into account and fully balancing the 
relative advantages and disadvantages of climate, soil, 
cultivation, etc. 

The Hudson Bay Company first attempted improve- 
ments by the Australian-Merino ; this, as might have 



1 10 RECAPITULATION* 

been anticipated by any one acquainted with (lie sub- 
ject, did not answer ; they are now trying Southdowns, 
a step better, certainly, but which might have been im- 
proved by importing Cheviots instead. 

In fine, the conclusions I arrive at are. that the Dor- 
geta will pay best on small farms near the large cities, 
whore two sets of lambs per year would, to a. certain 
extent, find a ready and profitable market. 

The Leicester, although a rapidly fat and mutton- 
growing animal, yielding a pretty heavy fleece of mar- 
ketable wool, requires good pasture in order to bring- 
out its most favorable points in perfection, the meat, 
however, is very inferior, and as a whole, is, in my 
opinion, for California, decidedly inferior to the South- 
down, which latter, for general purposes, when in con- 
tiguity to a good meat market, may. possibly pay equal 
U) any other variety. 

The Lincoln and Ootswolds will be desirable animals 
for the tide lands when sueh are reclaimed. 

The diminutive Purik would recompense the owner 
where almost any other variety would perish, amongst 
the snows of the Sierra Nevada. If this valuable little 
animal should be introduced, its skin would be valuable 
for making caps and warm upper clothing for the hardy 
and industrious miners engaged in developing the min- 
eral resources of that elevated district. 

Should my views o\' this sheep be adopted by any con- 
siderable number of the residents of the Nevada and 
.Mono country, and the patent office authorities do not 






RECAPITULATION. 141 

sco fit to procure the variety from Thibit, I have scarcely 
a doubt but if a proper representation of the desirability 
of procuring these animal- was made to Queen Victoria, 
that Her Majesty would at once permit a few from ber 
own flock to be draughted for the purpose of introduc- 
ing them. 

It is assumed that the bulk of the present run pf sheep 
in California are chiefly of Mexican blood ; yet I doubt 
if an immediate cross with superior Merino vari< 
would ho the best improvement in the first instance. I 
believe that a cross with the, as I consider, the older 
fine wooled breeds of Britain would be more effective 
in laying the foundation for a fine wooled race, at the 
same time imparting to their descendants that hardiness 
of constitution so desirable in any breed which may be 
destined to graze the pastures in California during all 
weathers. A good foundation thus marie might then be 
advantageously improved upon by an admixture of the 
Australian Merino. Should these views Ik; adopted, it 
may be well to advise such as may purpose following 
the advice never to put an improved ram to a ewe that 
has borne a lamb previously, by an inferior animal, or 
another variety, as it chances occasionally that the re- 
sulting offspring may disappoint the expectations of the 
improver. The first well known instance of the extra- 
ordinary effect produced on the subsequent progeny by 
prior connexion with an animal of a different cla 
that which occurred in the stud of the Karl of Morton, 
who being desirous of obtaining a breed between the 



142 RECAPITULATION. 

horse and the quagga, selected a young mare of seven- 
eighths Arabian blood, and a fine male of the latter 
species. The produce was a female hybrid. The same 
mare had afterwards, first a filly, and then a colt, by a 
fine Arabian horse. They both resembled the quagga, 
in the dark line along the back, the stripes across the 
forehead, and the bar across the legs. In the filly, the 
mane was short, stiff, and upright, like that of the quag- 
ga ; in the colt it was long, but so stiff as to arch up- 
wards, and hang clear of the sides of the neck. In 
other respects they were nearly pure Arabian blood. 

Another instance is afforded by what occurred with 
a sow belonging to D. Giles, Esq., who had a sow of 
the black and white kind, which was bred from a 
boar of the wild breed, of a deep chestnut color ; the 
pigs produced by this intercourse were duly mixed, 
the color of the boar being in some predominant. The 
sow was afterwards bred from by two of Mr. Western's 
boars, and in both instances chestnut marks were preva- 
lent in the latter, which in other instances had never 
presented any appearances of the kind. 

Of the law of variation, I had once a remarkable 
instance with some pigs which I took from England into 
Ireland. I bought two very handsome Chinese sows, 
and put them to a pure black Neapolitan boar ; the 
progeny were many-colored, but chiefly a dun color, 
striped brown down the sides, similar to many varieties 
found native on the Islands of the Pacific. I only kept 
a black sow which very much resembled the sire, and 






RECAPITULATION. 143 

proved a remarkably fine animal, possessed of very 
acute instincts, especially that of smell ; in this and 
many other respects much more resembling the wild, 
rather than the domesticated hog. 

In the Appendix will be found an account of a very 
interesting case of the law of variation, as exemplified 
in the Mauchamp Merino, to which the reader's atten- 
tion is particularly desired. 

It was originally intended to have made some re- 
marks upon the Shepherd dog and its training, the 
space has, however, in the present edition, been found 
too limited to do the subject justice. 

Whilst this work was passing through the press I 
had the opportunity of remarking, that the last arrived 
number of the Illustrated London News contained a very 
excellent engraving of Sheep in Auvergne ; the copy of 
a picture by M. Bonheur, brother of the celebrated 
Rosa Bonheur ; in which the distinctive character of 
horn to which Mr. Patterson drew my attention, is 
very apparent. The notice of this circumstance affords 
me the opportunity of thanking Mr. P. for his kindness 
in allowing his copy-righted fine engraving of South- 
downs to embellish this work. 

To such as may doubt the author's views respecting 
the policy of rearing very fine wooled sheep in Cali- 
fornia, they are respectfully referred to the article on 
Saxon Merino Sheep, in the Patent Office Report for 
1859, and also to Letters of Charles L. Fleischmann, 
and his Address before the Farmer's Club, New York. 



APPENDIX. 



FLEECE NUMBER SIX. 



Assortment. 



Trice in 
Leipzic, 

183(5. 



Per cwt. 
of 110 lbs 
reckoned 

in 
Prussian 
dollars. 



Value and weight of 

of the different parts 

of the fleece. 



o 


o 


o 


<-i 




o 




o 

O 


\ 


: 



Super Electoral. 
Electoral pieces., 
Prince " 

Secunda " 

Fine yellow. 

Points 

Refuse 



Weight and value of whole fleece (57 j>- 



180 
120 
80 
55 
80 
45 



57 



21 

G 



FLEECE NO. 17. 



A sort of Secunda 


85 
75 
55 
45 
40 
56 
48 
30 


38^ 

7 
30 
12 

H 

H 
lj 

2" 
98f 






22 
3 

11 
3 

i 

19 


H 


A sort of Tertia 


H 


Secunda pieces 


3 


Tertia " 


11 


Quarter " 


H 


Yellow 


_7 


Food 


n| 


Points 


3i 


Matted wool 


"8 


Refuse . 








"Weight and value of whole fleece 




1 


ft! 










^4 



FLEECE NO. 21. 



A sort of Tertia. . 
A sort of Quarter. 

Tertia pieces 

Quarter pieces. . . . 

Yellow 

Points 

Food 

Matted wool 

Refuse 



Weight and value of whole fleece . 



(50 
81 
44 
40 
40 
25 
33 



12 

70 

26} 

40 
i 
? 

H 

51 

i 
_l 

1G1 



4 

22 

7 

10 

i 
l 



The above are three selected fleeces, out of the twenty-two alluded to by Captain 
Stanley Carr — page 85. 



APPENDIX. 145 

THE MAUCHAMP MERINO. 

A correspondent of the Mark Lane Express, de- 
scribing the Agricultural Exhibition at Paris, observes, 
that " one of the most interesting portions of the sheep 
show, is that of the Mauchamp variety of Merinos, 
having a new kind of wool, glossy and silky similar to 
Mohair. This is an instance of an entirely new breed, 
being, as it were, created from a mere sport of nature. 
It was originated by Mons. J. L. Graux. In the year 
1828 a Merino ewe produced a peculiar ram lamb, 
having a different shape from the usual Merino, and 
promising a long, straight, and silky character of wool. 
In 1830 Mr. Graux obtained by this ram one ram and 
one ewe, having this silky character of wool. In 1831, 
among the produce were four rams and one ewe, with 
similar fleeces ; and in 1833 there were rams enough of 
the new sort to serve the whole flock of ewes. In each 
subsequent year, the lambs were of two kinds ; ona 
promising the curled elastic wool of the old Merinos, 
only a little longer and finer ; the other like the new 
breed. At last the skillful breeder obtained a flock 
combining the fine, silky fleece, with a smaller head, 
broader flanks and more capacious chest ; and several 
flocks being covered with the Mauchamp variety, have 
produced also the Mauchamp-Merino breed. The pure 
Mauchamp wool is remarkable for its qualities as a 
combing wool, owing to the strength, as well as the 
length and fineness of the fibre. It is found of great 
7 



146 APPENDIX. 






value by the manufacturers of Cashmere shawls and 
similar goods, being second only to the true Cashmere 
fleece, in the fine flexible delicacy of fibre ; and when in 
combination with Cashmere wool, imparting strength 
and consistency. The quantity of the wool has now 
become as great or greater than from ordinary Merinos, 
while the quality obtains for it 25 per cent higher price 
in the French market." 

This is an example for California sheep breeders to 
always have before them, as it is more than probable 
that the removal of foreign animals to a different soil, 
climate and herbage, will be more than usually pro- 
ductive amongst their descendants of this kind of vari- 
ation, which, if possessed of valuable features, ought to 
be preserved ; if of a retrograde character, equal 
care ought to be taken that it shall be no further 
propagated. 

THE ALPACA. 

The employment of the hairy covering of this animal 
as an element in the manufacture of cloth suitable for 
raiments, has only a very recent date, scarcely more 
than thirty years. Notwithstanding which, the busi- 
ness of manufacturing Alpaca wool has assumed stu- 
pendous proportions, and as with cotton, the cry is still 
for more. They have recently been introduced into 
Australia, and several attempts have been made to 
naturalize them in England, though, from causes which 
it is difficult to account for, they have never made head- 



APPENDIX. 147 

way. Whilst engaged on an agricultural and mineral 
survey of the extensive Highland estates of the Marquis 
of Breadalbane, I had an opportunity of inspecting an 
alpaca that had been living five years on the Breadal- 
bane property. It was then healthy, the wool fine and 
silky, and far superior to the bulk of that imported 
from Peru. The chief shepherd, Mr. Aitken, informed 
me that it was quite a favorite, was very docile, would 
eat turnips and carrots in winter from the hand, and 
that he suspected that if there was an error in mauage- 
ment, it was in consequence of being made rather too 
much a pet of. The fleeces of some old animals are 
said to yield twenty to thirty pounds, the probable 
average is possibly seven to eight pounds, worth at the 
port of shipment from thirty to fifty cents per pound. 
The Alpaca inhabits the cold, rocky elevations of the 
Andes, immediately adjoining the region of perpetual 
snow, and would doubtless easily acclimate on the cold 
elevations of the Sierra Nevada. 

ASIATIC GOAT. 

The most celebrated of these animals is the Cash- 
mere goat ; there are, however, many others deserving 
of attention, such as the Angora goat, whose covering 
is known in commerce under the name of Mohair ; it can 
be, and used formerly to be extensively manufactured 
into fine camlets, but of late years its chief employment 
has been confined to making the fine brilliant ends of 
superfine broadcloth. Angora is said to export about 
1,250,000 lbs. per annum of Mohair ; if it was grown 



148 APPENDIX. 

to any extent in California it would be worth at the 
port of shipment, on an average, from sixty to eighty 
cents per pound. All the species of goats yielding 
valuable hair require a degree of care and attention 
which cannot economically be afforded in a country like 
California, where labor is comparatively scarce, rela- 
tively, to other parts of the world which at present 
chiefly produce these fine textiles. 

THE YAK. 

An article on this animal appeared in the Patent 
Office report for the year 1858, at the same time recom- 
mending its introduction into the United States, with 
the object of placing it in the Indian Territory lying 
east of the Rocky Mountains, for the purpose of supply- 
ing the native races with a breed of animals susceptible 
of enduring the severities of the winter, but at the 
same time requiring at their hands some little care and 
attention, perhaps about as much as, under existing cir- 
cumstances, they are likely to bestow on any object per- 
taining to husbandry. The Yak is a native of Tartary 
and Thibet, where they are employed as beasts of bur- 
den, being strong, sure footed, and capable of carrying 
a great weight. They give a large quantity of rich 
milk, yielding excellent butter, which is preserved in 
bladders, or skins, in which it keeps fresh the entire 
year, owing to the cold climate of the country which it 
inhabits. When a sufficient stock of the latter is accu- 
mulated, the owners load their cattle with this, their 
own produce, to the most convenient market, and forms 



APPENDIX. 149 

a considerable article of commerce throughout the 
country which it occupies, and a large part of Tartary. 
The soft fur from the hump and shoulders is manufac- 
tured into a fine but strong cloth, which, if submitted 
to European or American skill, it is supposed would 
furnish a superior and valuable fabric. The tail of the 
Yak is the original Turkish distinctive mark of honor, 
though horses 7 tails are now employed to distinguish 
the one, two, three, or five-tailed bashaw. 

The Yak might with some propriety be introduced 
into this work as a textile bearing animal ; other rea- 
sons, however, obtained its introduction, for it appeared 
to the author that the Yak is admirably adapted for 
the mineral region east of the Sierra Nevada, and con- 
sequently, if the Patent office obtains an appropriation 
from Congress for its introduction, it would be well for 
those interested iu the future welfare of the State and 
Territories of the North Pacific, to put in a claim for 
consideration in the distribution of the animals, fully 
equal to that of the Indians of the Rocky Mountains. 

I had another object, also, in alluding to the possible 
introduction of the Yak, namely, that it would afford 
a convenient opportunity of importing some Purik sheep 
at the same time, particularly as they also are peculiarly 
well fitted to occupy the same elevated and cold winter 
region — in fact, are the only ovine and bovine breeds 
well calculated to occupy those elevated districts dur- 
ing the cold season. 

Should the authorities of the Patent Office see fit to 
follow up the these hints, it is to be hoped that they 



150 APPENDIX. 

will not, as with the Tea Plants, send the animals a 
journey of nearly four times the requisite length, by 
sending them, in the first place, to the Eastern States, 
but direct that they be forwarded at once to California, 
for San Francisco is not in a direct line, more than one 
hundred miles from some of the elevated valleys and 
mountains, where they might be distributed. Of the 
Tea plants imported, not one has yet reached Califor- 
nia, notwithstanding it has probably as large an area 
suitable to its cultivation as any State in the Union, 
possessing, also, the further advantage of having fn the 
Pacific States and Territories a Chinese population one 
hundred-fold more than all the other States and Terri- 
tories of the Union put together, and facilities for ob- 
taining additions thereto to any extent, and in the 
shortest possible time if such were needed, and at the 
least expense. 

The Tea plants sent to Washington were found 
mostly unfit for use, and if the animals should be for- 
warded in a similar manner, a very considerable number 
will probably perish on the voyage. 



Notice. — It is respectfully notified to intending purchasers and the 
public generally, that Mr. Warren, the publisher of the present Work, 
has no connection with the California Farmer. This notice is requisite 
in order to prevent future mistakes and disappointments, arising from 
orders and letters being sent to the wrong office. 
* All orders must be directed to 

J. Q. A. WARREN, 
No. 511 Montgomery Street, San Francisco. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Publisher's Notice 3 

Author's Preface 5 

Chapter I — Zoological Character of Sheep, etc 7 — 17 

Chapter II— Climate as an element of Sheep Culture, etc 18 — 30 

Chapter III — Breeds of Sheep best adapted to different localities. 31 — 67 

Chapter IV— On Setting a Flock G8— 75 

Chapter V — Procreative and Lambing Seasons, etc 76 — 94 

Chapter VI — The Growth and Management of Wool, etc. . . .95 — 112 

Chapter VII— The Qualities and Uses of Wool 113—127 

Chapter VIII— California Pastures, etc 128—136 

Chapter IX — Racapitulation 137 — 143 

APPENDIX. 

Details of Three Fleeces of Fine Electoral Wool 144 

The Mauchamp Sheep , . . . 145 

The Alpaca 146 

Asiatic Goats , 157 

The Yak 148 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The San Francisco Woollen Factory, Black Point Frontispiece 

The Teeth 14 

The Spmish Merino 33 

The Southdown 51 

The French Meriao 70 







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